The title pretty much says it all. This is a rather absurd movie; in fact, it's almost entirely absurd. I went into it expecting more of a comedy, but in reality, it was just... strange. The atmosphere was a strange tongue-in-cheek mix of Fiddler on the Roof, Calamity Jane, and Urinetown, and while it served as a charming fable about pride and power, it didn't really hit the funny bone, at all.
Basically, the premise is that this forgotten town in modern Russia (babushkas et all) survives on the water from one pipe. When the pipe stops flowing, the men are too lazy to fix it, so the women go on a sex strike until they do. This happens to coincide with the one night when the stars are aligned perfectly for the two protagonists to lose their virginity to each other.
***Spoiler Alert***
What ensues is a collection of shenanigans from the men trying to sneak out of the village to hiring in some sexual support to dressing up a "Judas goat" as a woman (why, we never find out). The women suddenly become gun-toting cowgirls, and the men mostly just stand around as ineffectual lumps. The young man, Temelko, is the only one who really does anything, and considering he married Aya at age eight, the story is really about the length to which a man will go for some nookie.
Basically, I enjoyed some of the moments, and despite the excess voice-over (note: as anyone in my screenwriting classes can attest, me saying anything about too much voice-over is a pretty big deal), I'd still give this three stars. Why not?
Basically, the premise is that this forgotten town in modern Russia (babushkas et all) survives on the water from one pipe. When the pipe stops flowing, the men are too lazy to fix it, so the women go on a sex strike until they do. This happens to coincide with the one night when the stars are aligned perfectly for the two protagonists to lose their virginity to each other.
What ensues is a collection of shenanigans from the men trying to sneak out of the village to hiring in some sexual support to dressing up a "Judas goat" as a woman (why, we never find out). The women suddenly become gun-toting cowgirls, and the men mostly just stand around as ineffectual lumps. The young man, Temelko, is the only one who really does anything, and considering he married Aya at age eight, the story is really about the length to which a man will go for some nookie.
Basically, I enjoyed some of the moments, and despite the excess voice-over (note: as anyone in my screenwriting classes can attest, me saying anything about too much voice-over is a pretty big deal), I'd still give this three stars. Why not?
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