Sick-bags at the ready for Aleksey Balabanov’s (Cargo 200, Of Freaks and Men) deliciously funny and graphically gory take on Mikhail Bulgakov’s Notes Of A Young Doctor, as he juxtaposes the worsening morphine addiction of a bookish young medic (Leonid Bichevin) in his backwoods hospital with the 1917 Bolshevik revolution which rages in the neighbouring cities. Divided into short episodes, all with laughout-loud titles (The First Injection, The First Amputation, etc.) which comically hint at the ensuing carnage, the film offers a vision of humanity bent on self-destruction and where the social pillars of religion, politics, media and medicine are all irredeemably corrupt. The exhaustive production design deserves a special mention.

Time Out

‘Handsomely shot and set to an evocative score, Balabanov transforms Mikhail’s self-inflicted hell into a searing spectacle that viewers simply can’t tear their eyes from.’

Vancouver International Film Festival Programme