the director said

"Cuckoo" is a new work launched by director Rogozhkin in 2002. Rogozhkin started making films in the mid-1980s and now enjoys a certain reputation in Russia. The film has won more than ten awards at home and abroad, and is considered to be an excellent work of Russian film in 2002. The film was not only well received in China, but also purchased and released in the United States, Japan and several European countries. This is certainly a delight for a Russian film that has only been bought but not sold for years.

Rogozh Metal is a generation of directors that emerged during the Soviet reform period. In 1989, he filmed "Guard", which exposed the lawlessness of the Soviet army, the abuse of new recruits by veterans, and the shooting incident, which attracted the attention of the critics for its sharpness. In 1995, the comedy "Characteristics of the Russian National Hunt" made him further recognized by the critics. The film takes a young Finnish as the completion of the thesis "Characteristics of Russian Hunting" and joins the hunting ranks of a Russian general during his vacation as an entry point. It was integrated with drinking and created a lot of jokes through various adventures in the hunting process, which won the applause of the audience, and also set a box office record for Russian films that year, and unexpectedly won the Russian Tafel Film Festival Award that year. Subsequently, the director launched the sequels "Features of Russian National Fishing" and "Features of Russian National Winter Hunting" in the same style.

In 1998, Rogozhkin unexpectedly released the film "Traffic Signal Station" about the war in Chechnya. The film was once again awarded the Grand Prize at the Russian Tafel Film Festival for the most pressing real-world issues. The film tells the daily life of a Russian team at a traffic signal station in the Chechnya region through a soldier's diary. The cold guns of the local villagers are threatening the lives of the soldiers all the time, so that they dare not go to the toilet, and they have to use smoke bombs as cover when changing the guard. The soldiers tried their best to find the person who fired the cold shot. It was not until the end, when the squad leader was hit by a cold shot, that it was discovered that the person who fired the cold shot was the lover of the squad leader who often came to the squad as a guest, a beautiful local girl. The film reveals the cruelty of war and the distortion of human nature. While showing the endless confrontation and unresolved contradictions between the two sides of the war, it also criticized the unjust attitude of the Russian army in handling ethnic issues.

"Cuckoo" is also the subject of war, but it is about what happened during World War II, which has passed more than half a century. Although the two wars are different, the author's purpose is the same, both are critiques of the war. "Traffic Signal Station" describes the present tense of the war. "Cuckoo" uses war as a background, and critiques war from another perspective, from the perspective of wider humanity.

The film "Cuckoo" highlights the theme of peace. This theme is embodied through a special environment and special characters. It is through the encounter and relationship between three ordinary people with different languages ​​and different nationalities in wartime. reflected in the mutual communication. First of all, when the author brought together three people who could not have been together in times of peace, he chose an area inhabited by a small number of nomadic peoples in northern Europe as the location for the development of the storyline, which provided a spatial basis for the theme of expressing peace in times of war. . In this inaccessible place, although there were occasional planes passing by in the air, individual military vehicles passing by on the ground, and even the appearance of German soldiers, there was no open engagement between the two sides of the war. This provided the conditions for the three of them to gather here. And the war in the background brought them together. However, this is only a prelude to the whole film, the theme of the film is still reflected in the daily life of the three people together, the relationship and contradiction between them.

On the coast at the northern end of the earth, in the vast and boundless forest, in the small thatched cottage of the Saami girl Anne, two soldiers and a civilian from the opposing sides gathered together to live the daily life of ordinary people. They herd, fish, gather mushrooms, and repair houses. Due to the language barrier, sometimes they understand each other, sometimes misunderstand, sometimes quarrel, and sometimes fight each other. In particular, the Soviet lieutenant Ivan from the initial hostility to the final harmony, reflects the understanding and sincerity between people. And the heroine Annie's pursuit of happiness, her relationship with two men on opposite sides, and her attitude of treating them equally are definitely a natural manifestation of human nature. It is through their relationship that the author expresses people's pursuit of peace and yearning for love. In the words of one critic: Rogozhkin found peace where others looked for war. In the director's words, his protagonists speak different languages, but always reach mutual understanding. Because the enemies on the screen are actually normal people, it's just that the war forces them to become enemies. It is precisely by showing the protagonist's psychological changes, life experiences, personality characteristics and attitudes towards life and his views on war and peace that the film highlights the author's theme: mutual understanding between people, what people need is peace, not war.

The film is structured in a triangular way. The conflict between the two men and the woman's resolution of their conflict constitute the impetus of the play, which promotes the play by revealing the characters' psychological characteristics and personality characteristics, and achieves the theme that the author wants to express.

Russian lieutenant Ivan was framed for writing poetry, and fell into this deserted place due to a car accident during the escort process. But he still appeared to be a stand-out Soviet soldier. When he saw a man in a German military uniform with a gun in his hand, he was filled with hatred. He believed that the man in front of him was a fascist and his enemy. So after the other party took the initiative to introduce himself and asked his name, he dismissed and said "fuck you". In the subsequent actions, he was always vigilant against the Finnish youth, and even had the idea of ​​getting rid of the other party at the beginning. When he was just able to get up from the bed, he quietly put a knife and stabbed the Finnish youth who was sitting outside the door removing the chains. Because the other party avoided in time, no harm was done.

The Finnish young Vico did not want to fight, but under pressure from the Germans, he took up arms. After surviving, he was even more reluctant to work for the Germans. He made it clear to Ivan in Finnish that the war was over for him, and he explained it again and again: he was not a fascist, he was Finnish, he was studying at university, and it was the war that drew him into it. Now, after he escaped from death, he felt that the world was too beautiful, and he didn't want to fight, especially when he was nailed to the cliff, he felt more and more of the preciousness of life and the beauty of nature. He wants to live, he doesn't want to die. If Ivan insists on going to war and killing people like Ivan, then please. However, Ivan did not understand what he was saying, and was always on guard against him.

Annie, the girl between the two, seems to have more understanding of the world than them even though she lives in her little nomadic spot. Anne deeply understands life and loves. She felt that a man's job was to make women have children, not to fight wars and kill others. In the film, Anne is not only the driving force for the development of the play, but also the bridge between the two sides to reach peace. She embodies human love and the continuation of life in her own way, dissolves the opposition between two men with the love of women, and shows great generosity and tenderness. Four years ago, Anne lived alone with deer and dogs after her husband was taken by one side of the war. In the film, Anne's thatched cottage stands alone on the shore of the northern bay, surrounded by forests and cliffs. Perhaps it was the boundless sea and the beauty of nature that gave her a kind and generous heart, so that she could be considerate and kind to others. She lives here alone, busy all day, never idle. When they saw the dead Soviet soldiers, they dug them and buried them. However, the long-term isolation from society and the lonely life of being far away from the crowd also made her yearn to meet and love men. So when she found Ivan who was still alive, she dragged him home to take good care of him, and personally took blood from the deer to treat him. When she saw the young Finnish youth's strong physique and tender skin, she couldn't help itching under her stomach, and she immediately fell in love with him. So, two men and a woman lived in a remote place far from the war, sleeping together, herding deer together, fishing together, occasionally rubbing against each other, but they were at peace with each other, and they showed a kind of harmony.

In just a few days of life, Ivan fell in love with Annie, but Annie seemed to prefer Finnish youth. This is not only because the Finnish youth is younger than Ivan, but also because the Finnish youth can talk and do it. He helped Annie pick up fish left in the wooden enclosure after the low tide, repaired her storage room and built a sauna. His diligent and cheerful and strong physique won Annie's favorite. So, when he and Ivan were taking a shower in the newly built bathroom, Annie pulled him away naked, and the two began to have sex. Anne's action to some extent made Ivan, who fell in love with Anne at once, feel aggrieved, and also became jealous of the Finnish youth. And the plot of him wounding the Finnish youth is on the one hand out of jealousy, but more importantly, it is a kind of warrior's vigilance. When the Finnish youth learned from the flyers dropped by the crashed plane that Finland and Russia had signed a peace treaty, they took off the weapons they were carrying and prepared to throw them away. Ivan mistakenly thought he was going to shoot himself, so he lifted up the sacrificed The pilot's pistol fired a shot at Vico. Afterwards, although he told Annie about the shooting of Vico, but the language was not clear, Annie did not understand. No one mentioned it again until the two men left Annie. Annie always thought that the bad guy injured Vico, and Ivan rescued him. In order to comfort Ivan, but also for his own satisfaction, after Vico was injured, Annie and Ivan also lived a married life. She warmed the hearts of two men in her own way, showing her love for them.

"Cuckoo" expresses daily life in a documentary style. There are no big scenes and no fierce battles in the film. Except for the bombing of the military vehicle escorting Ivan at the beginning, and the subsequent plane crash, the whole story revolves around an extremely ordinary and ordinary life of three people far from the war. However, the seemingly ordinary plot story, while revealing the dangers of war and highlighting the theme of people's desire for peace, can attract the attention of the audience, and has great viewing pleasure. What is the reason? First of all, it is the director's setting of the characters. In an interview, the director said that the film was originally conceived to describe the love triangle between two Russian and Finnish soldiers and a Karelian woman during the 1939-1940 war. Later, he changed the heroine into a Saami girl. Because this is one of the oldest minorities in the Nordic belt, with its own unique culture. The gathering of people from three different nationalities representing different cultures will inevitably constitute many conflicts, and the language barrier will inevitably produce many jokes.

The comedy technique in the film is the director's main technique for revealing the personality characteristics of the people in the play and showing the characteristics of ethnic minorities, and it is also the director's consistent expression technique. His comedic talent has already been shown in the trilogy "Characteristics of the Russian National Hunt". However, the use of comedy to represent the war may be an important reason why the film is unanimously recognized by critics and audiences, and it is also the novelty of the film. Because of the language barrier, the people in the play answered nonsense, or said a series of jokes or accidents, which undoubtedly increased the viewing value of the film. For example, in order to gain Ivan's understanding, and to express their desire for peace and not war, the young Finns said "Leo Tolstoy" to Ivan again and again in Finnish, and said "war and peace". After hearing these words, Ivan believed that Tolstoy's former residence was burned down by the fascists, so he was heartbroken and caused laughter from the audience. Also, when Ivan told Annie that he loved to write poetry and showed Annie a photo signed by the poet Yesenin, Annie mistook Yesenin as Ivan's wife, which caused a lot of laughter. In addition to the jokes caused by the language barrier, there are also many mysterious things in the action behavior. For example, after Annie helped Ivan do the laundry, Ivan put on Annie's dress and stood in front of Vico, which not only made Vico unbearable, but also caused the audience to laugh. And after Ivan eats mushrooms, Annie cooks him a medicinal soup to detoxify him. After Ivan drank it, he couldn't help but have diarrhea on the spot, and he didn't want to let Annie see the scene and the words "Look, look, call the deer and the dog to see" in the helpless words added to the film. joke. Annie's use of native methods handed down from generation to generation to seek help from gods, drumming and mantras to save Finnish youth from the brink of death also makes the film a little magical. Especially the scene when the wounded was taken away by the god of death: the author adopts the picture-in-picture technique, and in the backlit shots, the light on the horizon and the dark gullies form a clear contrast between the underworld and the yang world. In the damp and dark valley, where it seemed difficult to reach the end, an angel-like Death in white clothes took Vico to hell. Annie called out in Vico's ear, and Vico, who was following Death, stopped once to look for the voice. After repeating this several times, Vico finally stopped moving. After he spat out a mouthful of blood, Vico, who was lying next to Annie, finally woke up. The god of death reluctantly left, and Vico returned to the world. The use of images to express illusions is not uncommon in movies, but here it achieves a high degree of harmony and unity with the film's narrative style. In the sparsely populated arctic region far away from the war, the protagonist who is temporarily separated from the war and the nature blend together, which is even more beautiful and harmonious. It can be said that the director is neither looking for luxury nor excitement here. , but uses a documentary approach to tell ordinary stories. Moreover, in the process of narration, the serious theme is combined with the light-hearted way, the tragedy of human loneliness is combined with the comic element, the horror of war is combined with the calmness that is separated from the war, and the reality and the idea are combined. Together, the abnormal life fragments reach the level of folk tales, and the unity of content and form is achieved in the narrative.

At the end of the film, Anne sits on a stone bench and tells a story to her two sons. After the war, their father left the country in the warm clothes she sewed and returned to their respective hometowns, where only their mother remained. The story told by the mother to the child is like a fairy tale. It is not only a fairy tale told by Anne to her son, but also a fairy tale told by the director to the audience. But this fairy tale contains a profound meaning, that is, people want peace, not war; friendship, not hatred.