Running and jumping: "The King and the Fool" against the background of Cuba and Japanese sprinters

Over the long weekend, moviegoers will receive a generous gift: several bright premieres are being released at once. Among them is the long—awaited feature film about the band "The King and the Fool", which is already claiming a place in the top three box office leaders. No less intriguing are other novelties: the author's cinema from the master Ildiko Enyedi, the Cuban action film "Guantanamera" with Sergei Shakurov, Ruslan Baltzer's nostalgic fantasy about 1999 and the re-release of the anime "Stometrovka", recognized as one of the best of the season. Izvestia tells you which new items are worth buying tickets for in order to see them on the big screen.

"The King and the Fool. Forever" 18+

Director: Rustam Mosafir

Starring: Konstantin Plotnikov, Vlad Konoplev, Daria Melnikova, Ilya Khvostikov

Quite a lot of people in the world are sure that Elvis did not die, but flew home to his native planet. The fact that Choi is alive is now being written less often on the walls, but some people persist in doing so. There is a legend that Jim Morrison did not die at all, but became a hermit. As proof, they cite the fact that Agnes Varda, one of the main hoaxers in the history of cinema, was one of the first at the scene of the tragedy, and she certainly would not have missed the opportunity to fake the death of her friend.

Now Mikhail Gorshenev, aka Gorshok, the leader of the King and the Fool group, has officially joined this specific pantheon. The 2023 series ended with a hint that life defeated death, and in the feature film, this idea became the starting point for the entire plot. The world on the other side of reality, woven from the fruits of the musician's imagination, populated by the characters of his songs, similar to a stadium decorated for a punk concert, is the personal Narnia of the Pot. And this country is in danger in the face of a Necromancer who is about to ruin everything. So the Pot and the Prince should reunite, defeat everyone, and perhaps sing, because that's what it was all about.

This is the main news of the weekend, and the first figures are very encouraging. Although it won't be easy to beat The Tale of Tsar Saltan with an 18+ rating. Read the film review here: https://iz.ru/2045279/dzhuliia-parker/gorshok-i-trepet-film-pro-kultovuyu-pank-gruppu-perenosit-ee-v-skazku

"Silent friend" 18+

Director: Ildiko Enyedi

Starring: Tony Leung Chu-Wai, Lea Seydoux, Luna Vedler, Enzo Brumm

The most aesthetic novelty of the weekend is the hit of last year's Venice Film Festival "Silent Friend". It was shot by Ildiko Enyedi, a Hungarian director, winner of the world's largest festivals, including the Berlinale. And for the second time in a row, she invited Leia Seydoux for the main female role — the last time it was the picture "The Story of my Wife", be sure to read our interview about that film, taken at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival: https://iz.ru/1299160/sergei-sychev/mnogie-pytaiutsia-povesit-na-menia-iarlyk-rezhissera-s-zhenskim-vzgliadom

Let's also add that Enyedi somehow managed to get the legendary Tony Leung Chu-Wai, the star of Karvai's masterpieces and dozens of other iconic paintings, out of Hong Kong. Thus, "Silent Friend" automatically went down in history as Tony Leung's first European project. However, the prize in Venice for this film, an award named after Marcello Mastroianni, eventually went to the young actress Luna Vedle, with whom Enyedi had previously worked.

Potty and Awe: A film about an iconic punk band takes it into a fairy tale

The full film about "The King and the Fool" is released domestically

The film intertwines several time layers from the beginning of the twentieth century to the pandemic of 2020. The core of the action is the ancient botanical garden in Marburg. The heroes of the painting are plants led by the Ginkgo biloba tree, in the credits, by the way, these plants are listed as characters, more than a hundred names. And the theme of the work is the contrast between human society, where laws change too often, and chaos triumphs over reason, and nature, in which there is harmony for millions of years. Nature, whose laws exist regardless of whether a person likes them or whether they correspond to his current mood. Slow, thoughtful, subtle movies that are best watched in sessions with original sound and subtitles.

Guantanamera 16+

Director: Sergey Mokritsky

Starring: Alexandra Tulinova, Sergey Shakurov, Ilya Shlyaga, Carlos Henrique Almirante, Teresa Diuro, Vlada Yerofeyeva

The director of "The Battle for Sevastopol", "Draft" and "The First Oscar" Sergey Mokritsky presents a new potential hit. It's action-packed, about secret service conspiracies, the Soviet past, and, most importantly, about Cuba, where filming took place. Practically our answer to the "Hostage": the daughter of our special agent, a naive travel blogger, was trapped in Cuba in pursuit of traffic. Now she's the bait: her father, played by Sergei Shakurov, must go rescue his daughter, and the fate of the whole country is at stake. And, it seems, not Cuba, but Russia.

Well, long before Liam Neeson, the Voroshilovsky Shooter was shot in Russia as an action hero, so we have no doubts about the coolness of the older generation. The trailer promises picturesque chases through Havana and many other vivid Cuban nature, which our filmmakers are able to show brilliantly — from the masterpiece "I am Cuba" to the author's films "Long live the antipodes!", "Homeland or Death" and "Ocean" shot in recent times.

One of the roles in the film was played by Vlada Yerofeyeva, a fashion model who is approaching big cinema step by step. The actress managed to play in Outlaw, Bird's Milk, Psycho and other notable films, but this is her first big project. Here is an interview with Vladya Yerofeyeva to Izvestia, published a few years ago: https://iz.ru/1347221/sergei-sychev/vainshteina-nakazali-slishkom-zhestko-no-rabotat-stalo-legche

"Stometrovka", 12+

Directed by Kenji Iwaisawa

Starring: Tori Matsuzaka, Seta Sometani, Jun Kasama, Koki Uchiyama, Kenjiro Tsuda

The re—release of certain films into the cinema is a common thing, every week something is released either in a restored form, or because many years have passed since the rental and you can try again. But "Stometrovka" is perhaps a unique case. The fact is that the film was released in Russia very recently, last November. But somehow no one noticed it, about 5,000 tickets were sold with empty halls, and then the film seemed to disappear.

Historical justice doesn't happen very often, but now anime has a chance. At the end of the year, "Stometrovka" received the medal "Best Sports Anime of the Year" from Fandom Fest, was nominated for an Oscar, it was separately noted by the Japanese Film Academy, and then the Winter Olympics dramatically increased public attention to sports. In short, anime is back on the big screens, and you can personally verify the virtuoso technique of its creators. Of course, we definitely won't see anything more visually striking this weekend.

"Extra time" 6+

Director: Ruslan Baltzer

Starring: Roman Kurtsyn, Anna Khilkevich, Dmitry Pevtsov, Olga Toroshchina, Misha Schultz

A quarter of a century ago, Ruslan Baltzer burst into Russian cinema with the Guy Ritchie-esque crime comedy "Don't Even Think!". The movie stayed in the category of hits for quite a long time, and even the failure of the sequel did not greatly damage its reputation. Since then, Baltzer has not had films of comparable resonance, but everyone remembers his name and follows his work. Perhaps the new picture, the family fiction "Extra Time", has a chance to become an event at least in its niche of children's cinema.

The plot revolves around two stepbrothers who both play hockey, but find it difficult to get along with each other. It so happened that the dad of the two athletes is a brilliant inventor who built a time machine. In it, the guys accidentally fly off to 1999, and there they are most interested in how to help the future hockey star believe in himself and not miss his career. If Baltzer had shot this variation on the theme "Back to the Future" during the time of "Don't Even Think!", it would have been a terribly hooligan movie. But you can go to a new movie with children, and this is more important.