12 Angry Russian Men

With David Cronenberg‘s Eastern Promises getting a big pass from own own Michael Guillen and Sidney Lumet about to drop a new film in my backyard (that would be the TIFF premiere of his new noirish film with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Albert Finney), I happen to be browsing the Venice Film Festival Lineup and lo, there is a Russian version of Lumet‘s masterpiece, 12 Angry Men playing there.  It is simply titled 12 and made by master director Nikita Mikhalkov (the 1994 Oscar winner Burnt by the Sun amongst many others)!

12 jurors from various walks of life and different social statuses are in deliberation, deciding on the fate of a Chechen teenager charged with the first degree murder of his stepfather, a former Spetsnaz officer who had been involved in operations in Chechnya. The simple words of one of the jurors: “Let us at least simply talk about it” enrages the others. In their view there is nothing to talk about when both the investigators and the prosecutor say the defendant is “guilty”. After all, the professionals are more clever and competent than anyone else. What is there to talk about then? Us; everyone holds a grudge and harnesses pain for some unfairness which once happened in their life or in the life of a relative or friend. And we find out that law cannot exist in Russia in an emotionless context. The law touches upon the soul of someone who is chosen to make a decision. And so there is definitely something to talk about: pain, suffering and compassion that struggle through another dimension. If only the boy had been Russian! But he is Chechen, a person from an ethnicity that Russia has been in conflict with for centuries. It is not only the legal facts, but moreso the jurors’ psychological understanding of those who testified against the boy, that makes them gradually change their verdict. And still, at the end of the tunnel there remains one question: what is freedom for the boy, for the jurors, and for everybody else living in Russia?

For such a classic (and flexible) story, it is surely worthwhile that different countries/cultures would offer their own take on justice, prejudice and process.  I’m excited about this one and judging from the stills below, it looks like it is shot quite stylishly.