Fantastic Fest 2009

Imagine a mix of Repo Man, Oliver! and Pinocchio and you're on the road to grasping the tone of this bizarre Estonian take on Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's character Buratino, a wooden boy (or boyus woodenus, as the doctors in the film refer to him). Buratino's virginal mother wishes upon a star for a son and is immediately answered by what can only be called a rape-splinter. The woman gives birth almost immediately to her little wooden Buratino.

 

Growing up in Badville, the troubled Buratino forms a gang in his teenage years and robs the people of neighboring Goodville, often in song. The secret of Buratino's birth is soon discovered by the villainous Karabas Barabas who desires something hidden deep inside the boy. Buratino must do battle with Barabas' thugs and ultimately Barabas himself, all the while trying to make it with Barabas' hot, blue-haired daughter Malvina.

 

Bordering on the ridiculous at all times, this movie is always entertaining. Whether it's binocular hands that actually work, steaming mad coaches, sprout-pimples, laser guns, out of this world musical numbers or evil gardeners there's no limit to the curveballs this movie throws at you. Also impressive is that Estonian filmmaker Rasmus Merivoo was only 26 when he directed this film, which marks his directorial debut. He was attending film school while co-writing the script alongside Kristin Kalamees and cobbling the film together on the side, ultimately a Russian-Estonian co-production. Buratino was actually shot in some of the most rundown locations in Russia, which gives the Badville sequences a certain authentic Iron Curtain flavor that you can only get in the motherland.

 

With a foreign edge and indie spirit, this film will challenge you - nay, dare you - to name its equal. Love it or hate it, you will not see another like it. (Eric Vespe)