The Fool

(Durak, Jurij Bikov, Russia 2014, 116 min., DCP, Russian w/subtitles)

Rochester Premiere. The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber, an honest man who is up against the entire system of corrupt bureaucrats. The lives of eight hundred inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is at risk of collapsing, are at stake and all the time they have is just one night.

“The Fool refers to people’s reactions to our protagonist and not to his mental abilities. He is absolutely sane and proper. When the «battle» begins, most people act according to their natural instincts: to remain alive and to preserve their peace and wellbeing. Suddenly in this fight appears a soldier with a precise code: his conscience. Such people are very rare today. We call them romantic, altruistic, idealistic or simply ‘fools’ to stress that they do not act normal in the time when cynicism, fear and indifference have become the norm. Such ‘fools’ still exist in my country, and it gives hope.” – Jurij Bikov

“An explosive combination of highly personal moral drama and a wider, scathing portrait of a country in which corruption and greed seem to be the only shared values left, this well-oiled narrative machine is further aided by a clever ticking-clock mechanism that actually ratchets up the tension the longer the characters’ vodka-soaked, blame-game speeches are allowed to go on.” – The Hollywood Reporter