Siberian Education

The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.

This is based on a memoir from a man who lived much of his life in a semi-militaristic Soviet territory in deepest Siberia. It's not the government that provide the authoritative structure though, it's an ultra-hierarchical system that is headed by grandfather "Kuzya" (John Malkovich) and he rules the roost with a zealous ruthlessness. Their society is by no means lawless, indeed for the vast majority of this community it is a safe and thriving community doing the best it can with the most meagre of resources and amidst some fairly brutal winters. Growing up in this society are best friends "Kolmya" (Arnas Fedaravicius) and "Gagarin" (Vilnius Tumalavicius). Neither are exactly indigenous to this population, but being stolen from their families at a young age they are inducted into this brotherhood and required to play their part in honouring it's traditions and rules. Gradually as they age, though, the former finds himself more and more at odds with his more brutal childhood friend - a divide that goes in tandem with changes to an external society at large that are also beginning to impose themselves on a community that shows little inclination to fix what they don't see as broken. Now this isn't always the most coherent of stories and, especially with "Kolmya", there are some unexplained gaps in a plot that requires us to make a few too many assumptions, but some effort has gone into staging a drama that presents a community that is often scary and cruel, but that has it's own form of decency that Malkovich sparingly presents quite intimidatingly and that Tumalavicius shows only works when there is an element of benignity to the control - a facet of personality that he certainly doesn't have. I can't say I loved the conclusion and I've no idea how historically accurate this might be, but there's something gritty and real (to an obvious outsider) to this that I did quite like.