KREMEN

Anton Remitsov has just been discharged from the army and reckons he’s a tough guy. In search of a better life, he leaves his provincial town for Moscow, where he also wants to visit an unknown girl who sent him a photo when he was doing his military service. He’s hardly stepped off the train in Moscow before his first brush with the law occurs. But instead of arresting him they offer him a job with the militia. And he soon tracks down his distant admirer – a schoolgirl, who promptly gives him the brush-off. Staring back at him now is the ruthless day-to-day life of Moscow, dominated by corrupt civil servants, organized crime and mindless violence. But Anton has no intention of giving up. On the contrary: as a “revenging angel” he cuts his own path through the big-city jungle called Moscow.

This award-winning debut is an unsparing reckoning with the deplorable state of contemporary Russian society. It works as a finely written thriller but also, thanks to the director’s observational skills, as a hard, authentic portrait of the ambitious and determined capital city.