Fantastic Fest 2009

"A big, burly popcorn flick with a nasty edge. Beautifully shot with some fantastic set pieces, flaming cars and crazy people wielding axes. How much more can you ask for, really?" -TWITCHFILM.COM

"One of the most memorable domestic film debuts this spring was Zhest, a psychedelic action movie, which succeeds as a fantasy reconstruction of present-day Russia. Written by Konstantin Murzenko and directed by Denis Neimand, the movie features Marina (Alyona Babenko) as an intrepid and glamorous Komsomolskaya Pravda investigative reporter who reluctantly embarks on one last assignment. The planned profile of a deranged pedophile and rapist (Mikhail Efremov) goes awry when the killer escapes from an asylum into the woods, while Marina, dressed in a racy miniskirt, tags along with the police. Marina ferociously navigates this trancelike setting to learn some supposed truths about the person she was investigating. Just beyond the fringe of the big cities, it seems, lurks an eerie and infernal land, dominated by a brutal indigenous population that hunts urbanites for fun. The most threatening part of the parody in Zhest, however, is that a freeway connects this toxic hinterland directly to Moscow's Garden Ring." -RUSSIA PROFILE

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