The Stoker: Review and trailer
THE moral decay of modern Russia is treated as a bleak, black comedy in The Stoker.
Director Alexey Balabanov's deadpan manner and blunt humour convey a sense of deep despair about the dog-eat-dog mentality that prevails in his country.
The title character is Major Skryabin (the late Mikhail Skryabin), a shell-shocked veteran of the Afghan war who spends his days shovelling coal into the furnaces of a St Petersburg apartment building.
He sleeps beside the furnace having turned over his apartment to his daughter Sasha (Aida Tumutova).
He is also slowly typing a story set in his native Yakutia.
At the request of his former comrade Misha (Alexander Mosin) he shovels inconvenient corpses into the furnace.
It is a reflection of the way life is cheap, loyalty means nothing and how fortune favours the ruthless.
Skyrabin's unthinking complicity will not last for ever in a tale that reminds you of the early films of Aki Kaurismaki.
VERDICT: 3/5