4

4 stray dogs on the street open the film. 4 persons (3 customers and a bartender) accidentally meet at a bar late night. The three drinkers make up their alternate fictional professions. The woman among them is one of 4 sisters. This woman Marina, (played by actress Marina Vovchenko) meets up with two of her other sisters (played by real life sisters, if we go by their surnames and physical similarity). The fourth sister just died. Dogs are everywhere, following all the characters--at the meat factory, at the village to eat up the dolls (made up of chewed up bread!), following the thief who robs the watch on the hand of one of the initial three drinkers at the bar. There is a Muslim who breeds bizarre round piglets (genetically modified?) and kicks a dog (2 animals devout Muslims hate to deal with) and is promptly reprimanded for his action by a non-Muslim. 4 planes take off with prisoners who are forcibly trained to be soldiers. The village reminds one of the derelict world of Tarkovsky's "Stalker" The odd male in the all-female village commits suicide.

There is some fascinating elements to the film (script by Vladimir Sorokin. Does the film belong to the director Ilya Khrzhanovslky (his debut feature film) or to Sorokin or to both? The film is audacious and critical of modern Russia.reminding one at times of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22." Somewhere, the mad script comes together. Reminds one of another debut film --this time from China--Bo Hu's "An Elephant Sitting Still" (2018), This film could have had an alternate fitting title "4 dogs not sitting still."