12 Razgnevannyh Muzhchin(2007) PG-13
In Moscow, 12 jurors weigh the fate of a teenager (Apti Magamaev) accused of murdering his stepfather. They represent a cross-section of modern Russia's fractured society: an indecisive television producer, a flashy musician, a bigoted cabbie, a Holocaust survivor. Inside the jury room, as in the streets, the battle for peace and tolerance plays out. Nikita Mikhalkov directs this Oscar-nominated twist on 12 Angry Men.
This is the best Russian film I ever have seen, a cinematic equivalent of Crime and Punishment. Guilt and innocence, absolute morality and degrees of morality, personal experience and the behavior of peopel in a crowd are all dealt with here, with a terrific cast of character actors.
The teenager is a Chechen who has come to Moscow to live with his deceased mother's ex-lover, a retired Russian major. This film gives a microcosm of what life in Moscow is like and how it has changed in recent times. Each of the jurors has his own life story that bears on the matter of guilt or innocence. The jury room is the gym of a school, and there is symbolism galore and a haunting soundtrack with oboes. Russian films are often confusing because of references to history and folklore that Americans do not understand and badly translated subtitles, but this one has none of those problems.
I would give it five stars, the very highest rating. If you like Tolstoy of Dostoyevsky or the original 12 Angry Men, you are sure to love it.
Read the other reviews at the Netflix site: they are also extremely insightful.
