Gorod bez solntsa

The drug movie is a familiar thing. We have watched countless unfortunate youths get high, come down, go through withdrawal, overdose, and betray each other on the silver screen. Of course, there was Trainspotting (1996) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), and Blow (2001) and Spun (2002) ... to name but a few. So what then should make Sergei Potemkin's film Sunless City (Gorod Bez Solntsa) Russia 2005, any different? Well, there is something.

The basic plot would not seem to reveal it, though. It relates the story of Lyudmila, or Lucy ( "…in the sky with diamonds" ), a talented artist/actress who spends her time with a group of creative but narcotic bohemians, including her somewhat pretentious artist brother Alex, . Then, she meets Yegor. She drops her portfolio in the icy street, and he very nearly runs her over. So he gives her a lift to where she needed to go. Yegor is about thirty years old, and an engineer in a tobacco factory. At first glance, he seems little more than a fairly uninspiring bourgeois, and we certainly wonder why Lucy has decided to see him (as does he, at first.) However, as the film progresses and we learn more about him, he appears increasingly sympathetic, and not quite as boring as we might have initially expected. And, more importantly, he loves Lucy. And genuinely. He will turn out to be a very good influence in her life, helping her to try and conquer the heroin addiction that has seized her, as she will have an influence in his, introducing her imaginativeness into his safe existence. They are complete opposites, but they balance each other out.

Generally, drug movies have a similar structure to each other, first making the drug seem fun – showing it the way that the users believed it would be. However, their bliss inevitably crumbles around them and the truth reveals itself. Sunless City does not have this same structure. From the beginning, its characters gradually descend to their lowest point, before, if they are going to, picking themselves up again. Drug use is never shown as exciting and threat-free. The glamour of drugs, paired with their fatal danger, is perhaps why this subject is so commonly used - it is a very compelling combination. This film, though, does not glamourise them. From the first moment, Lucy tells how empty drugs are, and how, though she had at first thought they might, they will never bring you happiness.

This is one thing that for me distinguished Sunless City from other movies of its genre. But there were other things about it that particularly pleased me. There is a general sensitivity permeating the film, as the characters are striving for something higher. They reflect on life and happiness, and poetic gestures give the film depth. One of the most satisfying characters is the director of Lucy's theatre company, a tragic clown himself (though he claims to be no actor) and ever uttering wisdom and fairy tales. An interesting effect is created by the combination of a number of situations: Lucy's company is performing a play by Daniil Khrams, apparently for children, but dealing with themes that are quite adult. ("One shouldn't patronise them…") Also in the film, Lucy tells Yegor, "You know, if a child smiles in its sleep, it means an angel is coming to it in its dreams." The monk in the cathedral that they are visiting agrees. "Yes, angels only visit children. They are scared of us. We live too well." Is Lucy, then, as an actress for children, a fallen angel, or does this refer to the better life that she would like to live? Beside the angels, as well, are birds - doves and pigeons - set free from cages. (Lucy also appears inside a bird cage during one of the scenes of her play). The mixture of the theatre scenes with those portraying the characters' addiction also injects hope into the film. Their artistic endeavour helps them find their happiness, and a happiness that is deep and meaningful, and unachievable through use of drugs.

The setting, though, plays such an important role in this film. The name "Sunless City" refers to St Petersburg, and the city is almost another character. Beautiful shots of the city open the film, and occur throughout. Alex has given this name to the city. Though he loves it dearly, he projects his unhappiness onto it, saying that it is the cause of his claustrophobia. He calls it a 'sunless city', but the dimness of his rooms is down to the fact that he has stuck pictures he took of the city over his windows. He himself makes it a 'sunless city' and the darkness in his life comes from within. And more than just a frivolous notion of a decadent artist, this metaphor refers back to a tradition that has existed as long as the city itself – of Petersburg as an oppressive, ominous city, of long menacing nights where fateful things can befall you, and of unconquerable nature. The first scene of the movie shows Alex and his girlfriend Karina looking out over the city and photographing it. While there, they see a fire somewhere in the city, and grey smoke billowing into the sky. Already at the start of the film there is an indication of the life that the city contains, and the sinister forces that lie in it.

While the film is definitely very contemporary, it also ties itself to an old tradition, and aspirations that are somewhat eternal (people have always been aiming for some higher happiness, and seeking escapism). It is this that distinguished this film from others of its kind for me.