Sight&Sound - 05.2020

REVIEWS

May 2020 | Sight&Sound | 83

who can’t move on. References to Les Liaisons
dangereuses become a none too subtle warning
that manipulative women end badly; indeed, after
the false dénouement of Alex’s suicide, her own
death is one of the endings that emerge through
the book Claire writes as part of her therapy.
Despite its subject, the film offers few insights
into social media beyond Claire’s description of
them as “both shipwreck and lifeboat”, and the
visual evocation of a cold, mineral world where
technology isolates human beings. Who You Think
I Am is based on a novel (by Camille Laurens)
which multiplies and contrasts points of view,
but director Safy Nebbou’s adaptation flattens out
the narrative to Claire’s perspective. The saving
grace is that she is incarnated by Juliette Binoche,
who needs no younger avatar to be seductive.

Reviewed by Anton Bitel

Papa, Sdokhni, the original Russian title of

Why Don’t You Just Die!, translates roughly as

‘Daddy, Die’. Unsurprising, then, that writer/

director Kirill Sokolov’s rambunctious feature

debut is a full-blown assault on the patriarchy,

as embodied by corrupt, carnivorous cop and

father Andrey Gennadievitch (Vitaliy Khaev).

Andrey’s greedy, bullying, misogynistic

monstrosity is deconstructed and exposed layer

by layer, even as his apartment is gradually torn

apart by the events that occur within – and

though he owns a mug bearing the caption

‘World’s Best Dad’, Andrey represents, with

all his thuggish, macho swagger, much that

is rotten in the state of Russian masculinity.

The film opens as young protagonist Matvey

(Aleksandr Kuznetsov) arrives at Andrey’s door

with a Batman logo emblazoned on his hoodie, a

hammer concealed behind his back and vigilante

justice on his mind. Besotted with Andrey’s

daughter Olya (Evgeniya Kreghzhde), Matvey

has come to avenge the sexual abuse she claims

to have suffered as a child from her father – but

he will find himself locked in the middle of a

complicated domestic scenario where different

kinds of betrayal are coming home to roost, and

where nobody, including the resilient Matvey,

is going to give up anything without a fight.

The chronology of Why Don’t You Just Die! is

fragmented into headed sections, each with its

own flashback, but the bulk of the film is confined

to a modestly sized middle-class apartment which

becomes an improbable theatre in which several

different genres play out: kinetic action, torture

porn, bell-ringing farce, double-crossing intrigue,

family tragedy and even spaghetti western-style

armed stand-offs (complete with Morricone-

esque horns and strings on the soundtrack).

Sokolov – who is also the film’s editor – displays

an impish fluency in the language of cinema,

deftly switching codes and registers between

and within scenes, in a hyperactive manner

that confounds audience perspectives on what

is, in essence, a simple story, while liberally

splattering everything in irony and blood.

Garishly lit and often shown in slow motion

or from multiple angles, the ultra-violence that

peppers the film is of the cartoonish variety,

accompanied by kung-fu sound effects and

sanguinary excess that is soon all over Andrey’s

clothing and the apartment walls. The influence

of Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and Park

Chan-wook is clear to see, but Why Don’t You

Just Die! offers filmmaking of such confidently

energetic brio, nodding and winking its way

through the depravity and carnage that it

so claustrophobically accommodates, that

any viewer will be paying close attention

next time its director comes calling.

Why Don’t You Just Die!

Russia 2018

Director: Kirill Sokolov

Certificate 18 98m 32s

Russia, the present day. Claiming she was molested

as a child, Olya sends her besotted boyfriend Matvey

to kill her father, Andrey. Matvey visits Andrey

and his wife Tasha in their apartment. In a fight,

Matvey is incapacitated. During an ensuing series

of bloodily violent confrontations, it is revealed

that while Olya lied about Andrey molesting her,

he is a corrupt policeman who bullies his wife

Tasha, and has double-crossed his police partner

Yevgenich; he also refuses to finance his daughter’s

acting career. Yevgenich is shot by Andrey in a

standoff, Tasha hangs herself, and Olya and Andrey

shoot each other. Matvey alone emerges from

the carnage, alive if not exactly unscathed.

Produced by

Sofiko Kiknavelidze

Written by

Kirill Sokolov

Cinematography

Dmitriy Ulyukaev

Editing

Kirill Sokolov

Production Design

Viktor Zudin

Music

Vadim QP

Sergey Solovyov

Sound

Aleksandr Kopeykin

Costumes

Natalya Belousova

©White Mirror Film

Company LLC,

Paradise Production

Center LLC

Production

Companies

White Mirror Film

Company, Paradise

Production Center

with financial support

from The Ministry of

Culture of the Russian

Federation present

a film by Kirill Sokolov

Executive Producer

Elena Bykova

Cast

Aleksandr

Kuznetsov

Matvey

Vitaliy Khaev

Andrey Gennadievitch

Evgeniya Kregzhde

Olya

Mikhail Gorevoy

Yevgenich

Elena Shevchenko

Natasha, ‘Tasha’

Igor Grabuzov

Oleg

Dolby Digital

In Colour

[2.35:1]

Subtitles

Distributor

Arrow Films

Russian theatrical title

Papa, sdokhni

Theatre of hate: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Evgeniya Kregzhde

Credits and Synopsis

Claire is a middle-aged university lecturer and

divorced mother of two, living in Paris and seeing a

female therapist, Dr Bormans. When her boyfriend

Ludo leaves her, she invents a young alias, ‘Clara’, and

begins an online relationship with Alex, Ludo’s young

assistant. They become virtually intimate, especially

after Claire uploads photos of the beautiful ‘Clara’

(in reality, her niece Katia). Alex insists on meeting

her, but at the appointed place fails to ‘see’ her.

She breaks up with him, and subsequently hears

he has committed suicide. She hands Dr Bormans

the manuscript of a novel in which she imagines

that Alex falls in love with her, he finds out that she

invented Clara, and she is accidentally killed by a car.

The ‘real’ Claire, after revealing that Katia now lives

with her ex-husband, has a breakdown. Dr Bormans

learns that Alex did not kill himself. Claire finishes

her therapy and says several endings are possible.

Produced by

Michel Saint-Jean

Screenplay/

Adaptation/

Dialogue

Safy Nebbou

Based on the work

of Camille Laurens

Director of

Photography

Gilles Porte

Editor

Stéphane Pereira

Art Director

Cyril Gomez-Mathieu

Original Music/

Artistic Direction/

Arrangements/

Piano

Ibrahim Maalouf

Sound

Pascal Jasmes

Alexandre Fleurant

Fabien Devillers

Costume Designer

Alexandra Charles

©Diaphana Films,

France 3 Cinéma,

Scope Pictures

Production

Companies

A Diaphana Films

production in

co-production with

France 3 Cinéma,

Scope Pictures

With the

participation of

France Télévisions,

Canal+, Ciné+,

Playtime

With the support of

Région Île-de-France,

Procirep, Centre

National du Cinéma

et de l’Image Animée

and of Sacem in

association with

La Banque Postale

Image 12, Manon

8, Cinécap 2

A film by Safy

Nebbou

With the support

of Tax Shelter du

Gouvernement

Fédéral belge via

Scope Invest

Cast

Juliette Binoche

Claire Millaud

Nicole Garcia

Dr Catherine

Bormans

François Civil

Alex Chelly

Marie-Ange Casta

Katia

Jules Houplain

Max

Jules Gauzelin

Tristan

Francis Leplay

Serge

Pierre Giraud

Paul

Sonia Mohammed

Cherif

student

François Genty

patient

Guillaume Gouix

Ludovic Dalaux

Claude Perron

Solange

Charles Berling

Gilles

In Colour

[2.35:1]

Subtitles

Distributor

Curzon

French theatrical title

Celle que vous

croyez

Credits and Synopsis