THE FOOL (aka DURAK) (RUSSIAN) (2014)

In Durak (The Fool), Russian director Yury Bykov presents the story of a young idealistic plumber who wages a lonely war against the system and society steeped in corruption where honesty, integrity and empathy for fellow beings appear to alien values. The Fool is the story of Dima Niktin (Artyom Bystrov), a young plumber who finds himself at the mercy of small-town government bureaucracy when he discovers that the tenement building he is servicing is in imminent danger of collapse. 

In an unnamed Russian town, Dima Nikitin (Bystrov) is a plumber and heads the local municipal repair crew maintaining several buildings. Late one onight, Dima is asked to attend to an emergency plumbing job in one of the rickety communal housing buildings in the neighboring districts which houses the poor including an assortment of drunkards and social outcasts.While completing the repair, Dima unearths a much larger problem, as he finds that the exterior wall behind the pipe has cracked and has started to tilt. On further inspection, Dima realizes the building wall has developed a deep fissure from the ground level right up to the roof. As he assesses the extent of this damage, Dima calculates that the fissure could cause the building split into two halves and would ultimately collapse within the next 24 hours.

The knowledge that the 800 odd inhabitants face imminent death and require immediate evacuation wouldn't let Dima resign himself that the building is in not in his regular jurisdiction and would be responsibility of his colleague. So, despite the objections of his his protective wife and nagging mother, Dima rushes to inform his seniors who are gathered at the 50th birthday party of Nina Galaganova (Nataliya Surkova), the town’s imperious mayor. In doing so, he bypasses his direct boss, the corrupt inspector of public housing, Federotov (Boris Nevzorov). Soon, we get to know that Federotov had received funds for a major overhaul of the building, he had only supplied a new coat of paint and had funneled the remaining money on his daughter's personal residence. On hearing the news of the impending disaster, Nina begins an extended, closed-doors meeting with Dima, Federotov and heads of several other departments, including the fire brigade. As the assembled try to pass the buck on culpability and increasingly blatant and aggressive accusations fly thick and fast and long buried skeletons come tumbling down, the fact that this city council (and, by extension, Russia’s ruling class) is rotten to the core becomes painstakingly clear to Dima. However, his sense of responsibility would not allow him to relinquish his responsibility towards the residents of that ill fated building and he strives to to do his best to safeguard them even if it would mean putting himself and his family in peril.    

The movie presents an explosive combination of highly personal moral drama upon the canvas of a wider, scathing commentary of a country in which corruption and greed seem to be the only shared values left. This well-oiled narrative machine is further aided by the inherent race against time that ratchets up the tension about a building on the brink of collapse threatening heavy casualties among its indigent residents even as the key bureaucrats and politicians are engrossed in their vodka-addled blamegames and intrigue to protect themselves. The humble plumber Dima, on the other hand, with his steadfast integrity and ethics, is the titular fool, who represents the conscience and the moral compass of a society which is muddled in the miasma of selfishness and corruption. 

The director Yury Bykov has wrote, directed and edited the film has also composed the music which sets the right mood for the proceedings which unfold at a brisk pace in the course of a single night. He also employs several overt and subtle metaphors like the crumbling building representing Russia as a whole resulting from deep seated corruption of its ruling class of politicians and bureaucrats, the night itself in which the entire story unfolds indicating the dark tidings that engulf the country and the indifference and helplessness of the ordinary folk resulting in their lack of empathy and sense of responsibility for fellow beings indicating the prevailing social conditions.

Bykov assembles an effective cast who deliver remarkable performances especially Artyom Bystrov who is terrific as the humble and naive plumber, Dima and the Natalia Surkova as Nina, the mayor of the town. Running just over two hours, The Fool, despite being set in Russia, has relevance which would resonate across several regions beyond Russia where the hapless citizenry suffer under the power of an abusive authority and greed of the ruling class.

This powerful social drama has won numerous awards at several films festivals across the globe and was also highly appreciated at the Bengaluru International Film Festival in 2014.  

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5