The film was clearly made to please the Kremlin (or by order from) in time of civil unrest. The only goal of this film was to make the Russian people understand how good is the Putin government for bringing order to Russia, and how horrible and lawless was life in Russia before that. The reality of life in USSR in the 80's was for sure hard, and the Afghanistan war horrible, and the people were poor and full of uncertainty. But to say that this film "does not show a balanced picture of those years" is an understatement. Without knowing the current political situation in Russia it is hard to understand what this movie is trying to say. There are much better films to see made in Russia today without such clear political bias and without government involvement.

I have sympathy for the view that this dark, dark comedy from Balabanov is much too culturally pointed to impress a westerner beyond the more obvious clues and intents of the writer and director. Balabanov's movie articulates the classically Russian 'tragic view of life' (articulated by Antonina: 'the sooner we die, the better for us') and it is through this prism that it views the moral and material decay of the Soviet system. Captain Zhurov's depravity and necrophilia is not psychological. The filmmaker does not even pretend to study Zhurov's motives: it is the bare fact that the police chief has authority and uses it to his own sociopath's ends that matters (Balabanov cleverly keeps the audience from discovering Zhurov's professional identity until after he is outed as an insane murderer). What makes 'Gruz 200' Balabanov's best film and a true classic is the sort-of passerby attitude of the narration, and his insistence that he is not as serious as he appears to be. He delivers the most shocking and revolting scene with a healthy dose of the absurd kind of humour(says insane mama to the visiting lady with a shotgun in her suitcase: 'too many flies this summer'), and in this he resembles Tarantino's killing-is-comedy trademark. But the Russian director actually is committed to a point of view, and acknowledgement that humans have soul, something that would fall beyond Tarantino's understanding, or at any rate, his artistic grasp. 'Sunka', the Vietnamese migrant worker is the torch of humanity in the movie. Balabanov, here and elsewhere, pokes into the renowned Russian chauvinism and racism, in choosing for his saintly innocent an Asiatic who speaks broken Russian. (Dersu Uzala, anyone ?) It appears that the 'conversion' of the atheist professor Gromov, is linked to the death of Sunka, and to his boss Aleksey's convincing argument against atheism - i.e. his refusal to believe that human 'conscience' is a material effect of Darwinian evolution. Balabanov cleverly underplays Gromov's visit to the church by making the priest absent. (This saves the movie from turning preachy). The director also makes excellent use of the industrial wasteland (so much reminiscent of Tarkovsky's "Zone" in the "Stalker") and the dilapidating housing standards in the late Soviet era, as the background for his farce.

The title of the film is a code name for the return home of a body from the battle field. The reason why this title is chosen becomes clear early in the film - but the build of the film would allow a lot of different titles and each one of them would be matching for this film goes far beyond a body returning from the battle field. As the story rolls the film switches back and forth between a number of people and tells their respective tales - and the way all of them connect in one way or the other. The stories are not altogether happy but are not too dark either so the film doesn't turn too dreary. It is very grim though. As each of the stories turns to its conclusion one can not escape the biting cold reality of them.Played out well enough to be believable and quick enough to be entertaining this film does pretty well. It's ending is fitting, its after-taste is bitter. But, above all, it's an interesting watch.8 out of 10 broken bottles of vodka

It is a film about the death of totalitarianism in separately taken country. Year 1984, the life gloom of the Soviet power was condensed to the limit... Those who lived in USSR may cry when watching it. It is so cruel and at the same time so true. Every single part of you will tremble in the watching process. It is inspired from real facts, won't let anybody indifferent, I mean for those who knows at least something about the cinematography... Roles are played perfectly, just how it was meant to be played. People with weak heart and people that loves American Pie series, skip it, you won't like it anyway. For the rest, what can I say, you HAVE to see this movie. 9 out of 10