Sunday, January 13, 2008

Nails


It gets harder and harder to find contemporary directors that are worth following.Novice Russian director Andrey Iskanov is one of few worth mentioning. His dreamlike and surrealist films bring the viewer in a new world of pain. Hailing from modern day Russia alone could cause one to be easily influenced by the dark and perverse.

Only a cinematic genius could shoot such masterpieces on budgets around a couple hundred US dollars. Nails is a short and sweet masterpiece by Iskanov. Driving nails through your skull and into your brain can produce a better trip than any acid trip. Using an electric drill on your brain can become a serious matter. Iskanov took Nails plot from a real life story. I guess you come to accept stories like that when you live in a country that has more abortions a year than births.

Nails was shot on digital video. I am generally against digital as I believe film will always have more character. Iskanov proves that you can make good of digital as a filmmaker on a low budget. He was able to do more with Nails than David Lynch could with his first digital movie Inland Empire. Digital video has opened the doors so that anyone could be a filmmaker. Imagine the talent that would have never have gotten discovered without it.

Andrey Iskanov is also a artist. Painting your protagonist into a wall is very effective when trying to derive a new type of emotion out of an audience. Watching a drill entering inside a brain also can be exciting. I also don’t want to forget to mention the delicious looking entrees Nails protagonist gets out of a can.

There is nothing tasteless about any of these scenes. The visuals in Nails are the sign of a true auteur. Andrey Iskanov obvious knows what he wants to do with him and goes about trying to accomplish his goals. He is taking film to new boundaries and breaking down barriers (especially in horror). I think in disgust how Iskanov can do what he does with so little money when undeniable hacks like Eli Roth get millions. I guess Hollywood doesn’t like Ruskies.


-Ty E

1 comment:

  1. All who loved Nails - watch out for new Andrey's movie "The Tourist".

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