In brief: Russian fantasy and Belgian social realism

A world cinema double team today: one Russian fantasy epic and one award-winning Belgian drama. Both movies are about grown-ups who, in different ways, behave like children. 

Image: www.geekcouch.com

Nikolai Lebedev’s “Wolfhound” (2007) (full title: “Wolfhound of the Clan of the Grey Hounds”) takes its cue from “Conan” to deliver a quick paced swords & sandals movie that could’ve done with a little more swords and a little less hokey magic. Wolfhound loses his parents at a young age. A cruel duke enslaves the orphaned boy until the time comes for the boy, now a young man (Aleksandr Bukharov) with a few bouts under his belt, to avenge his parents’ death. His personal battle becomes intertwined with the destinies of other characters until the very fate of the world as Wolfhound knows it is at stake. 

Contemporary Russian cinema is quite the blockbusting machine, opening its gates to Western markets witn Timur Bekmambetov’s “Night Watch” movies a few years ago. “Wolfhound” didn’t find the same global audience but anyone looking for lightweight fantasy and a hero who frowns and grunts a lot should look in. The film clocks in at nearly two and a half hours. Once you get past the initial vengeance-driven attack and the CGI arterial spray, “Wolfhound” is a jolly adventure.

“The Child” is a 2005 Cannes darling from critic favourites the Dardenne brothers, who started out in documentary filmmaking and took their aesthetic of distance to narrative features only much later. Over the past fifteen years, they have become some of the most renowned figures in contemporary Belgian cinema. “The Child” opens with young mother Sonia (Deborah Francois) looking for the baby’s father, a man called Bruno (Jeremie Renier), with the newborn in her arms. She finds him eventually, and we recognise Bruno as one of life’s losers, an apparent dimwit who knows just enough about petty crime to just get by. Bruno has an ear for economic opportunity, and pays attention when someone mentions to him that certain people are willing to pay substantial amounts of money for a child. 

The rest of the film deals with the repercussions of Bruno’s decisions as the film seems to challenge our expectations of how rational people are supposed to react to major events in their lives. “The Child” isn’t a particularly heavy film (compared, for example, to Lukas Moodysson’s “Lilya-4-Ever”) but Bruno’s journey is gripping in its certainty that there will not be a happy ending. I should mention that there’s not a note of music on the film’s soundtrack, and its absence reminded me so much of the soul-killing leitmotif in Bahrani's “Man Push Cart”, another strong film about the survival of the destitute, that I was quite relieved to be spared a “Bruno’s Theme”. The lack of music enhances the impression of realism that the Dardenne brothers accomplish through long takes and a lack of indulgent close-ups.

I was with the film until the very last scene, which I did not buy into based on what had preceded it, but “The Child” remains a gripping character study of someone without any sort of inner compass.