18 Oct 05
Nochnoy Dozor Film
Nochnoy Dozor, Or "Night Watch" in English is a Russian film that I saw last night in Guildford. This is Russia's answer to The Matrix meets Underworld, directed by Timur Bekmambetov and is loosely based on 'The Night Watch', the first part of a Russian fantasy novel trilogy written by Sergei Lukyanenko.
A thousand years ago a battle between the warriors of light and darkness led to a decision being made, to maintain a truce and the two sides came to an agreement that neither side would breach. To enforce the agreement two watches were formed: the Day Watch and the Night Watch. The Night Watch is composed of the forces of good who keep the forces of evil from breaching the agreement and vice-versa. The watches continue today. Both sides are usually invisible to normal people except for a few "others" who can see and interact with the immortals. And therein lies the instability, because the "others" also have the potential to become immortals and they can go toward either side. There is a prophecy of an other, the "Great One" who will shift the balance, plunging the world into an era of light or darkness.
Anyway that's the basis for this amazing Russian film that is the first part of a trilogy. Its the first time Russia has turned out something this well made, and this clever with the special effects.
Its got bits of The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, vampires, shape-shifters, rocket-powered vans... And by gum its good! The cinema had 10 people in, (including me... and 4 of them were there people I went with), but go and see this film- its in Russian with English subtitles. The subtitles are cool too- they become part of the film, they drift away when the character is underwater... its really clever. Its been in the cinema since 7th October so you might have to seek it out, but its well worth it.
You can buy Night Watch