It is a grim, gruelling two hours that might benefit from some editing but Balagov is clearly a talent to watch and festivals championing new discoveries will want to take note.
Closeness(Теснота)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Russia · 2017
1h 58m
Director Kantemir Balagov
Starring Darya Zhovner, Atrem Cipin, Olga Dragunova, Veniamin Kac
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
1998, Nalchik. A Jewish family is in trouble: the youngest son and his bride do not come home, and in the morning, a ransom note arrives. The ransom is so high that the family is forced not only to sell its small business, but also to seek help from its fellow tribesmen.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Playlist by Bradley Warren
With his arresting debut, Balagov seems to be on the cusp of greatness, all the more effective for the way he draws upon his personal history to craft unforgettable images.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
This movie, which Balagov, a Nalchik native, states in an onscreen text is based on a true story, has a whole lot of “slow” and one very nasty burn.
Closeness is a tough-minded, rigorously composed, quite brilliantly acted story of the challenges of everyday religious prejudice and ethnic divides in the bleak heart of Russia’s North Caucasus, and in many ways Balagov’s uncompromising but stylized social realism rewards as much as it punishes.
Ila is the heart and soul of Closeness, and Zhovner breathes an impulsive fury into her.
Occasionally, the narrative is almost as wilfully undisciplined as its commendably rebellious heroine.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
Closeness, the original title of which, Tesnota, also apparently implies being walled-in or suffocated, is dramatically erratic, with tense and compelling sequences alternating with diffuse and/or flat interludes that don't advance the narrative or pay off in other ways.
Users who liked this film also liked
Violent Cop
(その男、凶暴につき)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1989
- Director Takeshi Kitano
- Cast Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Shiro Sano, Sei Hiraizumi, Mikiko Otonashi
- Genre Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Available on MUBI, Fandor Amazon Channel, MUBI Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Cineverse, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Nemesis
In the future... it pays to be more than human.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Denmark • 1992
- Director Albert Pyun
- Cast Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson, Deborah Shelton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Merle Kennedy, Nicholas Guest
- Genre Science Fiction, Thriller, Action
- Available on fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Nothing Left to Do but Cry
(Non ci resta che piangere)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1984
- Director Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi
- Cast Massimo Troisi, Roberto Benigni, Amanda Sandrelli, Iris Peynado, Carlo Monni, Lidia Venturini
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Good Bye, Till Tomorrow
(Do widzenia, do jutra)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Poland • 1960
- Director Janusz Morgenstern
- Cast Zbigniew Cybulski, Teresa Tuszyńska, Grażyna Muszyńska, Barbara Baranowska, Włodzimierz Bielicki, Jacek Fedorowicz
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Tangerines
(Mandariinid)
An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines despite the war. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Estonia, Georgia • 2013
- Director Zaza Urushadze
- Cast Lembit Ulfsak, Giorgi Nakashidze, Elmo Nüganen, Misha Meskhi, Raivo Trass, Zura Begalishvili
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Freevee, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
The Fool
(Дурак)
A story about a simple plumber up against an entire system of corrupt bureaucrats.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia • 2014
- Director Yury Bykov
- Cast Artyom Bystrov, Natalya Surkova, Yuriy Tsurilo, Sergei Artsybashev, Boris Nevzorov, Dariya Moroz
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
In the Shadow of Women
(L'Ombre des femmes)
Pierre, in a loving relationship, meets Elisabeth, and she becomes his mistress. So begins this ménage à trois.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Switzerland • 2015
- Director Philippe Garrel
- Cast Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar, Léna Paugam, Vimala Pons, Mounir Margoum
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, OVID, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Hoopla
You Were Never Really Here
A traumatized veteran and the trafficked girl he saved struggle to survive.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, France, United States • 2017
- Director Lynne Ramsay
- Cast Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Alex Manette, Dante Pereira-Olson
- Genre Thriller
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
Sofichka
(Софичка)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia • 2017
- Director Kira Kovalenko
- Cast Lana Basaria, Tsiala Inapshba, Sergey Tomashevsky, Said Kamkia, Raul Kove
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Loveless
(Нелюбовь)
A missing child. A marriage destroyed. A country in crisis.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia, France, Germany • 2017
- Director Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Cast Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Matvey Novikov, Marina Vasilyeva, Andris Keiss, Oleg Grisevich
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Amazon Video, Fandango At Home, AMC on Demand
Birds of Passage
(Pájaros de verano)
Generations of tradition. Consumed by greed.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Colombia, Denmark, Mexico • 2018
- Director Cristina Gallego
- Cast Carmiña Martínez, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez, Greider Meza
- Genre Drama
- Available on fuboTV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Crackle, The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, Plex, Plex Channel
Arrhythmia
(Аритмия)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia, Finland, Germany • 2017
- Director Boris Khlebnikov
- Cast Aleksandr Yatsenko, Irina Gorbacheva, Nikolay Shrayber, Sergey Nasedkin, Yevgeni Syty, Polina Volkova
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Video
Judy
A biographical drama following Judy Garland as she reminisces about her rise and comes face to face with her fall.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2019
- Director Rupert Goold
- Cast Renée Zellweger, Rufus Sewell, Finn Wittrock, Michael Gambon, Richard Cordery, Jessie Buckley
- Genre Drama, History, Music
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, FlixFling, Amazon Prime Video, AMC on Demand
Beanpole
(Дылда)
A war movie about what happens after battle.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia • 2019
- Director Kantemir Balagov
- Cast Viktoriya Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Konstantin Balakirev, Kseniya Kutepova, Olga Dragunova, Andrey Bykov
- Genre Drama
- Available on OVID, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy, Hoopla
The Lost Daughter
A woman unexpectedly confronts her past while vacationing in Greece.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Greece • 2021
- Director Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Cast Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal
- Genre Drama
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads