On January 30, the film “Coma” is released in Russian distribution - the directorial debut of producer Nikita Argunov. The protagonist of the film, the architect Victor (Rinal Mukhametov), ​​after the accident falls into a mysterious and even absurd world. The space there is fancifully mixed and woven, and the laws of physics simply do not work. It turns out that the hero was in a coma, and it consists of memories.

Here live people who do not remember their names. But some of them are endowed with superpowers: for example, the Phantom (Anton Pampushny) has inhuman strength and speed, Fly (Lyubov Aksyonova) heals people, and the Astronomer (Milos Bikovich) is the only one who can find the way in local locations.

However, even in this semi-underworld, you can die in the face of the reapers - they look like a faceless black mass and can either completely destroy a person or turn him into a similar one. The living hide from the reapers in an abandoned factory and constantly blow up approaches to it.

The local society is headed by Jan (Konstantin Lavronenko). He believes that with the advent of the Architect, the life of comatose workers will change for the better. However, the integration of the newcomer into the team is not very successful: Victor does not demonstrate supernormal abilities, and even inadvertently beats Phantom Fly, who, for unknown reasons, prefers an ordinary guy to a brave warrior.

  • Lyubov Aksyonova and Milosh Bikovich
  • © Shot from the movie “Coma” (2019)

Trying to make a feasible contribution to the common cause, the Architect does not give up hope to return to real life. In a dream, each time he sees more and more details of the accident, because of which he fell into a coma. At the same time, Jan reveals to the hero a part of the truth: those whose real life did not work out were in a coma at the top of the social ladder.

Due to the non-linear structure of the plot, “Coma” looks like two films in one: the first half is devoted to elucidating the circumstances in which the Architect fell into this terrible world (and looks like a detective story, where the investigator and the victim are represented in one person), and the second is focused on the hero’s attempts return to the real world.

International Tribute

“Coma”, as Argunov himself admitted, is a sort of alloy of the Nolanovian “Beginnings” and the “Matrix” from the Wachowski tandem. Indeed, it is difficult not to draw a parallel between films in which the characters sleep soundly, and reality is illusory and is changing by the effort of imagination.

Moreover, with the Beginning, a new tape is related by a slower flow of time in relation to the real world, as well as flirting with the laws of physics: here gravity is also relative, but slightly more stable and does not change on the go.

And, perhaps, the most audacious allusion is the open finale, more definite than in the Beginning, but still discouraging.

But in the gloomy video sequence the features of the cult “Stalker” by Tarkovsky are guessed - a film based on the Strugatsky brothers' novel “Roadside Picnic”. Post-apocalypse attributes of the world of coma are given - destroyed roads, rusting abandoned vehicles, buildings with shabby walls and empty rooms.

The appearance of the heroes complements the picture: conceptual clothing in the military style (recognizable stretched sweaters in combination with leather jackets), rags and a casual look.

Well, the scene in which the coma's inhabitants go on a raid for explosives resembles a computer game. Heroes need to destroy artificially generated enemies (in this case, memories), and the roles in the squad are distributed in a typical way for role-playing games: using superpowers, some take a hit on themselves, others kill enemies, and still others treat their comrades.

Domestic blockbuster

Despite some secondary nature, “Coma” is an important film for modern Russian cinema. First of all, this is a blockbuster with action and special effects, beautifully drawn and meticulously designed world.

Given the fact that Nikita Argunov runs a studio specializing in computer graphics, the film crew did not have the right to fail in this part. And the result is quite capable of meeting the expectations of the viewer.

Another strength of the tape can be considered the cast. Konstantin Lavronenko also worked with classics such as Evgeny Evstigneev and Vyacheslav Nevinniy, and in the 2000s he starred in Zvyagintsev. Interestingly, in "Coma" his "fatherly" image is revealed from a very unexpected perspective.

  • Filming
  • © Shot from the movie “Coma” (2019)

Performers of central roles somehow managed to declare themselves. The Invasion by Fyodor Bondarchuk and Rinal Mukhametov, Anton Pampushny and Milos Bikovich have not yet died out, were involved in the Balkan Frontier, which was released in 2019, and the comedy Kholop with a Serbian actor in the title role is the highest grossing record in the history of Russian hire.

In general, “Coma” turned out in a good mainstream way. At the end of 2019, the fantastic thriller “Outpost” was released, which collected not the best box office (and reviews from critics). On a better account was the "Invasion" with a humanistic message and thoughtful implementation.

It is likely that "Coma", the creators who managed to maintain a balance between visual and semantic content, will take its rightful place in this series.