Peculiarities of the National Hunt
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| Peculiarities of the National Hunt | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover | |
| Directed by | Aleksandr Rogozhkin |
| Written by | Aleksandr Rogozhkin |
| Produced by | Aleksandr Golutva |
| Starring | Aleksei Buldakov Viktor Bychkov Ville Haapasalo |
| Cinematography | Andrei Zhegalov |
| Edited by | Tamara Denisova |
| Music by | |
| Distributed by | Lenfilm |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Languages | Russian, English, French, Finnish, German |
Peculiarities of the National Hunt (Russian: Особенности национальной охоты, romanized: Osobennosti natsionalnoy okhoty) is a 1995 Russian comedy film. It focuses on a young Finnish man named Raivo who dreams to analyze a classical Russian hunt but instead finds himself in a series of boozy adventures.
The film was written and directed by Aleksandr Rogozhkin whilst also being distributed by Lenfilm. It is a slapstick humor type of comedy and became a nationwide box office success almost immediately in Russia. It won the Nika Award and Kinotavr awards and was followed by several other sequel films with "Peculiarities" starting off each of their titles.
Background[]
The act of hunting in Russia has occurred for centuries. It first started with indigenous peoples of Russia. It became more common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with many imperial hunts and hunting clubs taking place across imperialistic Russia. The hunts would target a variety of animals but would in many cases they would hunt for wolves and bears.
Plot[]
The plot follows a young Finnish man named Raivo who is in Russia to study the mannerisms and details of a typical Russian hunt. He is taken in by a former Russian general, Ivolgin, and his band for a hunt in a rural Russian forest. The members of his band are quite eccentric in their own ways and one of them is an exceptionally outrageous woodsman by the name of Kuzmich.
Coming in with prior misconceptions of how the hunt will go about, picturing an eloquent and royal hunt akin to those of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries pre-Revolution Russia, but young Raivo quickly learns that this is far from his current reality, instead he finds himself in some rather boozy misadventures that take up much of this group's time.
They have many run-ins with many individuals in the area. Some of the events that transpired during these alcohol-related adventures include having a bear sneak into their bathhouse and terrorize many of the main characters for a bit of time, a police officer loses his pistol, Lev blowing up a grenade, missing cows, stolen Police UAZ's, and meetups with the milk girls. Another side story occurs when the group attempts to transport a cow in a bomber for a bottle of vodka. Stories like these occur constantly throughout a vast portion of the movie and contribute to its slapstick humor elements.
As the movie progresses, it becomes apparent that the hunt is not the main event for these individuals and rather just something they will get around to eventually.
In contrast, Raivo envisions a hunt inspired by pre-revolutionary Russia where the hunt is well organized and requires the help of many people, hunting dogs, and horses to achieve a proper hunt. In this imaginary hunt, the characters speak French, are classy, and are after a giant wolf. These scenes serve to juxtapose the ideal hunt from the chaotic flurry that is occurring before Raivo.
But the group does attempt a hunt which is only found with odd events and findings. Some of these events include a pineapple being picked from a hedgerow, Earth being visible in the sky, and a missing cow thought to be dead coming to life and attempting to run away.
As the movie ends, the cast sits around a campfire, and the two worlds of the movie mesh to end the scene and movie.
Themes[]
The main theme in Peculiarities of the National Hunt is expectations vs. reality. The main character is met with disappointment when his attempt at a "Hunt" goes in a glaringly different direction than its historical predecessors. This comedic film lacks a sense of deep meaning but provides the audience with entertainment.
Generationalism is an important theme in the movie because it shows how serious the cultural difference in the past was as opposed to the present. The movie goes to show that hallmark cultural events and activities may never go away but may be done or celebrated in a completely different manner with each generation.
National Characteristics is also a big theme in the film. There is a lot of camera work and direction that emphasizes the tradition of a hunt and it gives good insight into how the imperial past differs from the present. The imperial past and the post-imperial present are juxtaposed in a way that really contrasts the two time periods.
Reception[]
- IMDB: 7.5
- Russian Film Hub: 7.5
- Letterboxd: 3.5/5
The movie was well received in Russia and was a box office success there. Critical reviews in foreign countries were a mixed bag of mostly positive reviews with some being partially negative. This may be attributed to a multitude of different factors, maybe involving differences in culture or difficulties in foreign distribution.
It is slowly becoming clear what the characteristics of Russian hunting are. This satire was Rogosckin's first film to reach a wide audience and has since become a national hit known to young and old. It was compared to Ferreri's "The Big Feast" - only without food. Almost without a plot, the film comes across as a 90-minute drunken anecdote, light and absurd, but not without subversive moments.
— review from Tristesse Deluxe, a German blog[1]
I should like to underline the movie is NOT for abstinents since from a point of view it may be seen as "only about drinking" movie. The story starts when a young Finn comes to experience real Russian hunt. He has had plenty of dreams about it, so they appear randomly in the film. The reality directs him to the absurd reality that only people with delirium tremens may have known - his companions simple refuse to stop their spiritual way to nowhere and if they luckily are sober, everything turns to even greater absurdity (finding the pineapple in Siberia is my favourite one). Note: Watch it subtitled only, because a lot of jokes are based on Russian x Finish lingual dissimilarity, which obviously cannot be understood when dubbed.
— Top user review from IMDB
Rogozhkin's film was also one of the first and most successful examples of "cinema for the people" (narodnoe kino), following the debates over the sad state of the Russian film industry in the mid-1990s. This might explain the series of prestigious awards Peculiarities receivedat Russian film festivals, as well as the attention of Russian critics, who were often dismissive of comedies. Peculiarities won the NIKA award of the Russian Academy of Film Art and the Grand Prix at the Kinotavr film festival (notably, the famous satirist Vladimir Voinovich was chairman of the Jury that year). As for Russian audiences, they could not help but fall in love with the film. In the mid-1990s, movie theaters in Russia were in complete disarray, and the film's distribution was primarily on video, finally giving the video pirating industry a native hit from which to profit (Savel'ev 2004). Peculiarities also immediately found a home on Russian television where it often played simultaneously on several channels, especially around the New Year, thus joining such Soviet classics as El'dar Riazanov's Irony of Fate (Ironiia sud'by, 1976) as a feel-good movie par excellence.
— Excerpt from a Kino Kultura review[2]
Box office release[]
The movie was released in 1995 as a comedy and garnered lots of attention which led to the making of its sequels, Peculiarities of the National Fishing, The Peculiarities of the National Hunt Under Winter Conditions, and The Peculiarities of the National Politics.
Awards[]
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Nominee, "Crystal Globe", Aleksandr Rogozhkin in 1995
- Nika Award, "Best Picture" in 1996
- Nika Award, "Best Director" - Aleksandr Rogozhkin in 1996
- Nika Award, "Best Actor" - Aleksey Buldakov in 1996
- Nika Award Nominee, "Best Screenplay" - Aleksandr Rogozhkin in 1996
- Sochi Open Russian Film Festival, "Grand Prize of the Festival" in 1995
Cast[]
- Aleksey Buldakov (Role: General)
- Viktor Bychkov (Role: Kuzmich)
- Semyon Strugachyov (Role: Lyova Soloveychik)
- Sergei Guslinsky (Role: Semyonov)
- Sergey Russkin (Role: Sergei Olegovich)
- Ville Haapasalo (Role: Raivo)
- Sergey Kupriyanov (Role: Kachalov)
- Igor Dobryakov (Role: Nobleman)
- Yuri Makusinsky (Role: Hunter)
- Boris Cherdyntsev (Role: Commandant)
- Aleksandr Zavyalov (Role: Ensign)
- Aleksey Poluyan (Role: Zaderzhannyy)
- Igor Sergeev: (Role: Count)
- Zoya Buryak: (Role: Milkmaid)
- Saara Hedlund: (Role: Milkmaid)
References[]
External links[]
- 1995 films
- Russian films
- Russian-language films
- Films directed by Aleksandr Rogozhkin
- 1995 comedy films
- Russian comedy films
- Films set in Russia
- Films shot in Russia
- Films about hunters