KARLOVY VARY – It’s goes without saying that it’s usually a good idea not to pigeonhole a movie before you’ve actually seen it. The collective media groupthink usually can’t help itself from doing so and have often been guilty of falsely misrepresenting a picture before they’ve actually seen the completed work. Just this past January and before it screened for a majority of critics, “Swiss Army Man” was unfairly branded the “Daniel Radcliffe farting movie” at Sundance, potentially damaging its chances at being acquired for theatrical distribution (luckily A24 saw what a great film it was overall and picked it up). There is a danger that “Zoology,” a Russian dramedy that premiered at the 51st Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week, could suffer a similar prejudice as it’s already consistently referred to only as the “middle aged woman with a tail movie.” As with “Swiss Army,” that would be a terrible mistake.
The second feature film for Russian director Ivan I. Tverdovskiy after 2014’s well received “Corrections Class,” “Zoology” centers on Natasha (a fantastic Natalya Pavlenkova), an unmarried fifty-something woman who lives at home with her elderly mother in a seaside Russian city and spends her days managing the food supply for the local zoo. When we first meet Natasha she isn’t necessarily the belle of the ball and her “Mean Girls” inspired co-workers childishly mock her as though she isn’t worthy of sitting at their lunch table in High School.
Early on she begins to complain of pain in her lower back and visits her local doctor who barely reacts to her new appendage, quizzically instructing her to get an x-ray before any diagnosis can be made. As she puts on her medical gown and lays on he x-ray machine we discover she has some sort of tail growing out of the lower portion of her back. Handsome Peter (Dmitriy Groshev), the x-ray technician, doesn’t even react to the strange sight.*
*It’s worth noting there has been some debate from critics over when exactly Natasha becomes aware of the tail. She references to her doctor that she put some pain ointment on it earlier to alleviate the pain it was causing and we don’t believe she had it as a child or teenager, but when she figured out what it really was is unclear. It’s a slight problem for the film if you think about it a bit too much.
After the results come back inconclusive to everyone but Natasha and the audience, she’s instructed to get yet another x-ray. Upon this visit Natasha is shocked to discover Peter’s interest is more than just professional. While she still can’t get the doctors to get out from under their bureaucratic paperwork to even deal with her bizarre abnormality, Peter’s romantic overtures begin to make her feel much better about herself. She gets her hair dyed and styled. Much to the shock of her mother and her now strangely prudish co-workers she starts wearing sexier outfits. For a fleeting moment, being different may be the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Until, sadly, it isn’t.
Natasha’s mother is a constant reminder of the gossip spreading of an evil woman living in the city with a tail. The fear mongering is so strong her mother paints upside down red crosses all over the apartment walls to protect them from this “witch.” Moreover, during a date night Peter convinces Natasha to hit the dance floor of a local bar. She gets so swept away in the moment and the music that her tail drops out from under her skirt. This causes the other patrons to react in horror as though they have just seen some sort of Frankenstein’s monster reveal itself at the club. Peter may be ready (perhaps too ready) for a potential partner with a tail, but the rest of society isn’t.
Tverdovskiy has tried to focus on the idea that he wanted to make a comedy first with “Zoology,” but it’s hard to ignore the blatant allegory for modern Russian life up on the screen. Whether you are gay, an artist, a political progressive, an undiscovered immigrant, or simply someone different, “Zoology” makes the argument that, for the most part, contemporary Russians won’t handle it very well.
Ultimately, this roller coaster of emotions for Natasha leads to a scene that many will consider controversial on a number of different levels. And, frustratingly, what Tverdovskiy is trying to say with the film’s climax becomes unclear and may muddy his overall message that a conservative society like his homeland needs to revisit its prejudices and become more of an accepting society overall (if that is what he really wants to say). Because, honestly, if someone you knew grew a tail, would it really be that big of a deal? [B+]
Click here for our full coverage from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
