Director: Andrei Gryazev
Cast: Oleg Vorotnikov, Natalia Sokol, Leonid Nikolaev
Running time: 90 minutes
Synopsis: A documentary following the anarchist art group Voina and their efforts to free their members from jail following a widely publicized prank.
The key to any successful documentary is fascinating subject matter, and the political agenda of activist art group ‘Voina’ (translated as ‘war’) is certainly interesting. Voina has made a considerable name for itself in Russia, staging various political demonstrations, practical jokes, and works of performance art. Its creative approach to protesting against corruption and authority is to be commended – unfortunately, as people, they’re quite repellent.
The crux of Gryazev’s documentary is an elaborate prank that sees Voina flip a police car onto its roof and distribute a video of the act online. For this, group leader Oleg Vorotnikov spends four months in police custody, and is separated from his partner and young son. Gryazev’s attempts to manipulate viewers into feeling any kind of sympathy fail miserably: each of the situations Vorotnikov’s family have to endure – including his three-year-old son receiving a concussion during a scrap with police at a demonstration – can only be attributed to his own actions. Whatever the agenda, putting your own children into such situations is shameful.
Another major issue is Grazev’s filmmaking style, which is dry and uninspiring at best; the rare instances that should provoke at least a spark of emotional connection fall completely flat, and the film drags for what feels like far longer than 90 minutes. However, there’s little that can’t be saved a first-class cock gag, and just when it feels like TOMORROW is beyond help, it does manage to… ahem, ‘raise’ a smile.
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