Year:  2017

Director:  Valery Todorovsky

Rated:  NA

Release:  October 26 – November 19, 2017

Distributor: NA

Running time: 132 minutes

Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Alisa Freyndlikh, Valentina Telechkina, Alexander Domogarov, Nicolas Le Riche, Margarite Simonova

Intro:
…a beautiful and compelling experience.

 

What does it take to succeed in the ultra-competitive world of Russian ballet? This is the question that Valery Todorovsky (Hipsters, My Step Brother Frankenstein) asks in his new film The Bolshoi.

The film tells the story of Julia, a young girl from a poor family who moves from a small city in rural Russia to Moscow to attend a prestigious ballet academy. Once there she is thrust into the brutal world of top class ballet, a world where starving yourself to get the top role is considered normal, and where money and politics has as much weight as talent and hard work. She becomes close with the aging head of teaching at the academy, who becomes a mentor to her. She also befriends fellow dancer Karina, who becomes her main rival in her ballet ambitions.

The film moves between periods in Julia’s life, beginning with her as a child entering the academy, and jumping forward to focus on her experiences as she graduates and enters the post-graduation world of professional ballet. However, these do not follow each other naturally. Rather, the story skips between the separate time periods throughout the film, something which, early on, can be confusing. The scenes with the young Julia are also less compelling than the scenes with her as an adult.

However, much of what the film is trying to do succeeds. Julia’s journey is an easy one to get on board with, and the film is anchored by excellent performances all around, especially from newcomer Margarita Simonova, who plays the adult version of Julia. Interestingly, Simonova is actually a professional ballet dancer, not an actor, which makes her performance all the more impressive. The film is also stunningly shot by cinematographer Sergey Mikhalchuk; the dance sequences in particular are beautifully done. The film was also given the rare opportunity to shoot inside the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and the climatic scenes shot there are as impressive as you’d expect.

Essentially the film asks the question: what is Julia willing to sacrifice to achieve her dream of dancing in the famous Moscow theatre, and it tackles this idea in a heartfelt and interesting way. Overall, despite a few narrative missteps, the film is a beautiful and compelling experience.

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  • Tanto
    16 December 2019 at 9:35 pm

    Agree ! Just watched it on youtube, the Russian version … understood only 0.001% of the dialogue … lived in Moscow back in the 70ies and was “allergic” to ballet … but this movie made me understand the beauty of ballet #wow !

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