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Stand
- Director: Jonathan Taieb
- Writer: Constance Fischbach; Frederic Jean-Jacques
- Producer: Frederic Jean-Jacques; Kalin Linsberg
CGiii Comment
Never has the word 'run' been so chilling...
First: Jonathan Taieb wholly deserves to be congratulated...as well as his cast and crew.
The dichotomies herein are fertile and potent: Stand...or, run. Fight...or, flee. Help, or...
No matter...there will be damage, there will be carnage, there will be heartbreak...there...will...be...savage...injustice.
Be still...my exploding heart.
Filmed within the instability of a divided Ukraine, Stand is guerilla, definitely DIY, filmmaking...what it lacks in polish...is compensated by...talent.
Renat Shuteev does empathy with staggering clarity...his stubborn recklessness is understandable...because: he cares.
The narration does - at first - seem a little out of place...but, bear with it, for Taieb delivers a masterstroke...a firm slap of realisation.
People are living this nightmare...what would you do: Stand...or, run. Fight...or, flee. Help, or...?
Finally: Jonathan Taieb has to be congratulated. He asks a difficult, penetrating question.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
After taking a wrong turn in their car, a young gay Russian couple witnesses what they believe is a vicious gay bashing. Anton and Vlad make a handsome pair, sharing a loving and natural chemistry in the comfortable privacy of their Moscow apartment. For Anton, the burden of what they may have witnessed outweighs Vlad’s fear of probing too deeply into the incident. Anton talks his skeptical lover into launching their own amateur investigation into the hate crime.
Their risky search for the truth has unexpected and grim consequences. The slow-burning film is highly topical, given the intense worldwide outrage over Russia’s mistreatment of gays and the country’s 2013 federal law prohibiting homosexual “propaganda”.
Cast & Characters
Renat Shuteev as Anton;
Andrey Kurganov as Vlad;
Veronika Merkoulova as Olga;
Andrey Koshman as Andrey;
Ekaterina Rusnak as Katya;
Yevgen Baranov as Artium;
Tanya Baranova as Nikolay sister's;
Daniel Baranov as Nikolay brother's;
Nataliia Baranova as Nikolay's mother;
Ellen Slusarchi as Olga