Overrated and overhyped

One of the wrost movies I have ever seen

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

"Cargo 200" is my favorite Balabanov's film. By showing and perhaps exaggerating a lot of elements director has personally seen in eighties USSR he has created a very successful metaphorical movie. Most obviously it's of a metaphor for decline of USSR, but even shocking parallels with very recent crimes of Russian policemen the year "Cargo 200" came out had shown that the metaphor is much broader. It is also to a large extent about modern Russia and perhaps even people and society in general. The genre is mixed, taking horror to the extreme and mixing contrasting details of an era creates an absurdist Pyton-esque humor in a lot of scenes at least for those who can understand it (a lot of Russian viewers and critics didn't get this type of humor, which is much more prevalent in western culture today, popularized by the likes of South Park, more familiar to younger "global Russians"). A lot in this movie from transgressive story to political and historical elements is very provocative and makes it hard for a lot of people to see the movie itself behind all the provocative elements and all the emotional buttons it pushes. Even in comments on IMDb you can see of strong, sometimes outraged, reactions to this movie and they are 10 times stronger in Russia where history is a much more touchy subject, there are more taboos, at least in media, and the view of cinema and humor is generally more conservative.I personally won't necessarily call it a realist movie, it is a metaphor first and foremost. But a lot of details of the era are very precise - the music, the gorgeously decayed and familiar (if you have lived in Russia) set designs are a pleasure, albeit maybe a perverse one, to observe in this film. All in all, a lot in "Cargo 200" just works. It was conceived and developed in the right place at the right time, a lot of elements of the movie and historical artifacts and collective memories that inspired it just came together very effectively. Seems like this movie wanted to be created and found a great creator in the late great Aleksey Balabanov, becoming one of his strongest works.

After watching the film to the end, i launched myself off the chair, toward the television and returned to the beginning - so i could reassure myself that the word 'based on true events' had been written there. He (Alexey balbanov) may have been messing with us or not, but then the complete repulsiveness and disbelief at the fact that human beings are capable of such things, was the most riveting thing. The film and characters deliver a slice of outright realism, social decay, dark and twisted tales i have ever seen. And nowadays in times unsurprising storytelling, this film shocked the hell out of me. It wasn't the disgust of Captain Zhurov nor the helplessness of Angelika (my name-sake) that irritated me, but the sheer intertwining and coincidence that could be experienced in the film. Everyone crossed everyone else's path. This, like others have said, is a very very dark, sick, twisted movie... in a good way. That it keeps you interested and intrigued. I loved it, only with an open mind.

The title of the film is a code name for the return home of a body from the battle field. The reason why this title is chosen becomes clear early in the film - but the build of the film would allow a lot of different titles and each one of them would be matching for this film goes far beyond a body returning from the battle field. As the story rolls the film switches back and forth between a number of people and tells their respective tales - and the way all of them connect in one way or the other. The stories are not altogether happy but are not too dark either so the film doesn't turn too dreary. It is very grim though. As each of the stories turns to its conclusion one can not escape the biting cold reality of them.Played out well enough to be believable and quick enough to be entertaining this film does pretty well. It's ending is fitting, its after-taste is bitter. But, above all, it's an interesting watch.8 out of 10 broken bottles of vodka

Russian director Aleksei Balabanov has made a number of excellent movies such as "Of Freaks and Men"; his "Cargo 200" is the darkest he's done. Set in '84, when the Soviet Union was at a very low ebb, it is a deceptively simple story of institutionalized brutality and the death of ideology. A young woman becomes the victim of a deeply disturbed police officer whose evil actions deliberately impact those closest to her. Tonally, this is as bleak as "Irreversible", "Pixote", or the Turkish "Journey of Hope". Balabanov directs with precision and economy, never wasting a shot or a gesture. The characters feel real and the situations emerge from instantly familiar situations. Popular music from the place and time is used to good effect. Sound effects work is incredibly rich and unnerving. Performances are all top notch. The "relationship" between the kidnapped woman and the police officer reaches dizzying heights of depravity when her dead boyfriend's corpse is thrown into the mix. We have characters so brutalized by the harsh realities of the past that the realities of the present barely touch their leather, delusional facades. Although the film avoids bloodiness on a grand scale, it contains disturbing instances of frightful violence.