ASSA [NTSC] [Russian Language Only]

In writing this review, I am hampered by my command of Russian and the need to rely on memory. Since there are no other reviews, though, this will have to do.This is a delightful movie shot in the final years of the Soviet Union. It is well produced and surprisingly universal. One can hardly sense when and where it was shot - sort of like Hitchcock - could have been well shot yesterday. It is well superior to the majority of current (2010) Russian productions.The movie combines several threads. One is that of raw musical brilliance. Actual musicians play in the movie and the movie opens up with an outstanding percussion solo. More outstanding music is inside. Another thread is that of helplessness of an individual against a system. In the movie this is the helplessness against a criminal mob, but one can sense that this is just an allegory of the helplessness against a corrupt state. One more thread is of the charm of Yalta on Crimea in winter. The threads are tied with a somewhat conventionally clumsy love story. In fact, it is not quite clear why the main hero persists in his interest in the heroine, other than maybe her being a girlfriend of a powerful mobster.Within the movie one gets a peek, though quite brief, into the living conditions of ordinary citizens in the Soviet Union. Finally, there is a hint of links between criminal underground and police forces, that came fully to the surface after disbanding of the Soviet Union.