Papa, sdokhni
Director: Kirill Sokolov
Writer: Kirill Sokolov
Cast: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde, Michael Gor, Elena Shevchenko, Igor Grabuzov, Aleksandr Domogarov
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 22.9.2019
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Content Note: gore

Plot:
Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) shows up at his girlfriend Olya’s (Evgeniya Kregzhde) parents’ place, hammer in hand, ready to kill her father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev). Andrey is a dirty ex-cop who is far from easy to kill and doesn’t shy away from violence himself. The ensuing battle between the two gets interrupted by a few revelations that neither of them expected.

Why Don’t You Just Die! is a debut feature and all the more impressive for that. But mostly it’s a fun and extremely bloody romp that entertained me wonderfully.

Why Don’t You Just Die! tells a pretty convoluted story from its deceptively simple premise (Tarantino says hello) and there were definitely some twists here that I didn’t see coming (others I did). One involves a false accusation of abuse – a plot device I wouldn’t usually take so easily, but in this case, it actually didn’t bother me.

Sokolov effectively sets the story in scene, telling its story at a quick pace with very dynamic camera-work that gets the most out of the limited space (and budget) they had. The resulting film is super bloody, and actually managed to make me physically cringe – quite an achievement that I always have to honor.

Kuznetsov was a fantastic protagonist for the film. He has a gift to wrangle humor out of situations that aren’t actually all that funny – and he does so with an admirable understatement. He already stood out to me in Leto, now he really cemented his talent for me.

The film does have a couple of lengths around the middle, but that is outweighed by the awesome music featured in it. I really had a whole lot of fun.

Summarizing: Super entertaining.