Star Rating:

Moscow Never Sleeps

Director: Johnny O'Reilly

Actors: Evgenia Agenorova, Lyubov Aksyonova, Rustam Akhmadeyev

Release Date: Friday 11th November 2016

Genre(s): Drama

Running time: Russia minutes

Set over one day – Moscow City Day – this ensemble piece takes a peek at all walks of Russian life. With only weeks to live, a formerly famous TV actor Yuriy (Baranov) is abducted by a group of star struck young men who take him home for a party; his son Ilya (Oleg Dolin) attempts to win back wannabe starlet pop starlet Katya (Khirivskaya), whose rich husband Anton's (Serebryakov, Leviathan) business empire hangs on the latest deal with the government; a young gamer feels guilty for putting his mute grandmother in a rundown nursing home; and shy teenager Lera (Shalonko) has taken to following the man she believes is her real father before bumping into Yuriy's abductors in a nightclub…

Written and directed by Ireland-born but Russia-based Johnny O'Reilly, this Russian-Irish co-production certainly doesn't hang around. In a style that invokes the title - a speedfreak flitting about the city - O'Reilly zips through his various stories, giving each one only a short time to progress before moving onto the next, all the while delicately upping the stakes little by little. Dipping in and out in this fashion keeps things ticking over and ensures each story has its own mystery: What will happen next?

But as always with multi-narrative plots, some stories engage more than others. While Anton and Katya's infidelity story doesn’t amount to a great deal, the similarly-themed story involving Yuriy – he too has been conducting an affair for years and, because of his impending death, reckons there is no time for secrets anymore – involves thanks to its unpredictable nature. The nursing home story may slow things down somewhat but it is also boasts the biggest heart in show.

All the while O'Reilly chips away at his theme. The opening scene has a barely conscious Yuriy ask a nurse if this is heaven or hell. When she replies Moscow, Yuriy remarks that its hell, and this is what this Moscow comes across as. There's not a lot of love and understanding going on in the capital: It's a cold place, occupied by emotionally distant businessmen, corrupt government officials, young men intent on rape, and young women selling themselves to earn some cash for a night out. The flash apartments may look nice but the glossy surfaces suggest a coldness, while the cramped confines of the flats, with the peeling wallpaper and visible piping, are just as inhospitable. But this isn't a state of the nation address – Moscow may be the setting but it could be any city in any country.

It’s a skill in keeping all these plates spinning and Johnny O'Reilly looks destined to turn in a belter in the future.