leshmania

for those who, like me, relish feeling the soviet chill through cinema, this film acts as an absolute ice bath. while even the mere mention of 'bureaucracy' sounds tedious, ninety percent of the movie deliberately suffocates the audience using the bureaucratic apparatus itself. to be clear, this is not boredom born of a poorly made film; rather, the movie masterfully achieves its purpose through the psychological oppressiveness of bureaucratic red tape.throughout the film, i found myself captivated by the lead actor playing the prosecutor, who bore an uncanny resemblance to someone i used to follow on youtube—though i could not quite place them. i kept wondering: was it a digital creator, or perhaps a medical representative i once briefly encountered in real life? the entire time, my mind desperately tried to unearth this lookalike. what struck me most was that the prosecutor's character on screen perfectly mirrored the temperament of this elusive person from my past. yet, failing to recall their identity left me with a deeply unsettling feeling. on a historical note, the organization referred to as the nvkd was, in fact, the precursor to the kgb.