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Russia 1919: World War I is over and the Bolsheviks have taken over
power in the country two years ago, with the Russian royal family being
murdered in 1918.
But for some reason, nobody ever cared to tell this to the people of
Archangel, the Northernmost city of Russia, who still fight the Germans
and still defend their tsarist believes against the Bolsheviks, whom they
consider to be nothing more than manbeasts. Eventually, the Canadian
soldier John Boles (Kyle McCulloch) comes to Archangel and finds abode
with cowardly Jannings (Michael Gottli) and his brave wife Danchuk (Sarah
Neville), who finds herself immediately drawn to the young soldier. But in
Boles' heart there is only room for one, Iris, his deceased fiancée, and
when he meets Veronkha (Kathy Marykuca), who is the splitting image of
Iris, he thinks his dead fiancée has come back to life and does
everything in his power to win her affections.
Veronkha has a problem of her own though, she has once married pilot
Philbin (Ari Cohen), but found him shagging a chambermaid in their wedding
night, upon which she immediately annuled their marriage. However, Philbin
has since been struck with amnesia, and he constantly thinks he has just
married Veronkha and they are off to their honeymoon, and he has forgotten
and keeps forgetting everything that has happened since.
Eventually, Veronkha can't take it anymore and agrees to go to Murmansk
with him on their honeymoon, just to have her revenge on him. Hearing
about this, John Boles travels after them, only to find a weird scenario:
While Veronkha is still waiting for him in their room, Philbin once again
shags another woman, this time even in the hotel lobby. Boles grabs his
chance, steals Philbin's pilot outfit and enters Veronkha's darkened room
disguised as Philbin. Veronkha, thinking him to be Philbin, confesses that
she has never loved him (Philbin) but is in love with Boles - upon which
Boles lights a candle to reveal his true identity. Rather unexpectedly,
Veronkha is positively shocked by this, faints and immediately loses all
her memory. Again, Boles grabs the chance and tells her she is his
fiancée Iris, and they are very much in love. This goes alright for a
while, to a point where Boles steals the baby of Danchuk and Jannings (who
has since died a hero's death saving his son from the Bolsheviks) and
tells Iris it is theirs - but then some of her memories return to
Veronkha, those of herself and her husband, and how happy they were just
after their wedding and before their honeymoon - and unfortunately she
doesn't remember anything after that, leaves John Boles for good and goes
back to Philbin to fly to Murmansk for their honeymoon ...
John Boles is left behind a broken man, who will probably die lonely
since he is unable to notice the now widowed Danchuk's affections towards
him ...
Whatever movies you usually watch, Archangel is ... well,
different. The only films it is comparable to are probably some of the
other films by Guy Maddin. Archangel is high drama, shot a bit in
the style of silent and early sound cinema, in deliberately unconvincing
sets and featuring actors who quite obviously hold backregarding their
talents. Now in the hands of a lesser director, the film would be little
more than a mess - and not in the best meaning of the word either - but
Maddin manages to merge all of the films intentional shortcomings into a
unique piece of cinema that creates a parallel universe all of its own,
which is of course also helped by an over-the-top anything-goes screenplay
that seems to exaggerate at every twist and turn the story takes and that
features more amnesiacs than you can shake a stick at, very weird war
scens and of course a man who strangles his enemies with his own
intestines. And though none of this makes really sense in itself, in the
context of the movie, it makes total sense.
Highest recommendation.
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