In a contested, lawless region between Moldova and Ukraine known as Transnistria, a tightly knit group of “honest criminals” live according to strict codes of ritualized respect and fierce loyalty. In a voice utterly compelling and unforgettable, Nicolai Lilin, born and raised within this exotic subculture tells the story of his moral education outside the bounds of “society” as we know it where men uphold values with passion and often by brute force. Adapted from Nicolai Lilin’s book, which sold well in Italy, where the author has made his home, this ethno-chic tale of honour among thieves never once feels authentic, an impression compounded by the hammy English dialogue.
This movie is Italian director Gabriele Salvatores’ first English language project. Lush photography, spot-on production design and a quietly convincing lead performance by Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravicius help to sweeten the pill. The education of the title is that of Kolyma (Fedaravicius as an adult) who grows up in a community of displaced Siberian gangsters in south-west Russia where life is considered sacred, except in the case of policemen, politicians and bankers. Kolyma’s moral arbiter in this Russian Sherwood Forest, which indulges Italy’s current reaction against its ruling castes, is his steely-eyed grandfather Kuzya (Malkovich, taking his Russian accent from Rounders to new heights).
Grandpa tortures drug dealers but is a real softie in his dovecote; he tells Kolyma parables about wolves, gifts him the switchblade his umbilical cord was cut with, and lets him and best friend Gagarin (Tumalavicus as an adult) practice their blade-work on pig carcasses. The early scenes of ghetto solidarity and quasi-religious ritual move along engagingly enough in a haze of tattoos, bathhouses, slo-mo dove flights, intricately carved switchblades and Klezmer music. And it has to be said that despite the distractions of his accent, Malkovich invests his bad grandpa easily the film’s most memorable character with menacing depths.
But with the introduction of fragile and not-all-there beauty Xenia (Tomlinson) a capricious child trapped in a young woman’s body, a script which seemed to be developing into a broad-canvas Russian criminal education epic a kind of shamanistic Goodfellas, suddenly becomes a baggy unoriginal tale of brotherly betrayal. The historical background (complete with shots of people breaking up the Berlin Wall) is sketched in without much conviction, moving us forward from what we guess is the early eighties up to the end of the nineties, where we find Kolyma serving, surprisingly as a Russian soldier in Chechenya, for reasons that will become apparent.
Scriptwriters Rullo and Petraglia did this kind of rangy, HBO-drama-style plotting much better in The Best Of Youth and Romanzo Criminale; here, for all the slickness of the visual package, the colourful story ingredients never quite add up to a full bowl of borscht. Lush photography, spot-on production design and a quietly convincing lead performance by Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravičius help to sweeten the pill. But let’s see better this young and tallented actor. A really great surprize to see him in this movie. Finally a new face that we hope to see soon on in different movies.
We hope Hollywood will pay attention on this tallented guy and let us to see him sometimes in Minority Report-like action movies. Is ridiculous to see always same actors – almost olds for that kind of roles – so why not try to introduce this kind of new faces from East ? More details about Arnas: (Height: 179 Weight: 69 Shoe: 43 Suit size: M Hair: black Languages: Lithuanian, English, Russian – Agent contact: Conway Van Gelder www.conwayvangeldergrant.com Mail:rachael@conwayvg.co.uk ) Arnas is also under contract with Supa Model Management, so for those who intend to use his images for campaigns or for fashion catwalks, they can contact the agency at this link: www.supamodelmanagement.com. Here we show you some more pictures of Arnas, just to make you understand the reasons we insist to see him in other international movies. Bellow the pictures of Arnas you can watch the trailer of Siberian Education and the link to buy the book.
Image Courtesy: Supa Model Management
Image Courtesy: Supa Model Management
Image Courtesy: Supa Model Management
Image Courtesy: Dalia Ciupailaite
Image Courtesy: Linas Masiokas
Image Courtesy: Imantas Selenis
Image Courtesy: Imantas Selenis
