PrimeMinisterOfSinister

This documentary is old fashioned - simple, even primitive, simplistic, honest and informative. Not a propaganda piece by any means.

There is little chess involved though. Mostly it focuses on the character of Bobby Fisher and tries to convey the spirit of the times. Interviews with famous chess-masters who knew him paint a brutally honest personal insight into the world's best and most brilliant chess player. Through his debut on the world stage and his uneasy childhood in Brooklyn and his brilliance in the World Championship match, the film conveys a sad decline of apparent madness of both Fisher and the chess-playing world.

A lot of things that should have no connection to sport and chess have influenced the state of competitive chess. There was a time when chess was in a truly lamentable state.

The archive footage is accompanied by solemn Orthodox funeral chants.

A classic realistic psychological Russian drama film. Very difficult to watch, slow and deliberate, an art movie. Shot in a decrepit mining town, somewhere in the forgotten post-Soviet provinces. Bleak and desolate, it offers the perfect backdrop for the sadly flawed and run-down characters. A former Russian Navy captain laid off, a librarian and her assistant, a shady dentist, are the main characters. I am not versed in the film-school speak, but there are a lot of brutal long closeups, scrutinizing and revealing the actors a lot. The actors had done a great job, there is a lot of psychological stuff and nuances, and it feels realistic. 2,3 minute scenes, portraits of characters, no music at all. A solemn atmosphere of despair. I saw it in a film festival, afterward I went to have a beer. Incredibly depressing, not for the faint of heart.