"Vodka Lemon" just might be the world's iciest postcard film: you will never be so happy to sit inside a cozy, theater as when you watch the actors exhaling clouds of warm breath over the blindingly white expanse. But the thicket of relationships that the director, Hiner Saleem, has created and weaves his cast and camera through is so invitingly hotblooded and crowded with hilariously melodramatic incident that the snowbanks are not nearly as forbidding as they initially seem. The picture starts with an old man being pulled across the snowy wastes on his bed, an image right out of a dream. But Mr. Saleem's gifts come from giving these outlandish visual statements a grounding in the everyday reality that the characters experience. "Vodka Lemon" charts the intermingling — marriages, death and sexual complications — in an Armenian village. Chief among the citizens is the wily Hamo, played by Romik Avinian. Hamo has begun a flirtation with a much younger woman, the 50-ish widow Nina (Lala Sarkissian). She feels a void in her life, and he simply recognizes now as the time for both of them to move into a new adventure. Mr. Saleem understands that need is the central motivating force in the villagers' lives: for heat, food, emotional humidity and clarity. Mr. Saleem's layering does compensate for the lack of formal structure. But the picture does not need an elaborately contrived plot. What it has instead is a neighborly, fresh-air quality; all the doors in the miniature snow-globe of a town are open, as is the chatter and curiosity about everyone's familial intrigues. "Vodka Lemon" could be an Ice Capades version of a Beckett play, with a group of seasoned though modest hammy actors in complete control. Their affectlessness gives the movie an atmosphere of hypothermia-laced surrealism, with shots of drama serving the same purpose as the vodka; both keep the blood flowing. This movie has an antic, mordant visual poetry that matches up with the rancor and feeling in its population's souls. — Elvis Mitchell, NY Times
Rated NR (Adult Situations/Adult Language/Adult Humor) — 90 minutes — in Armenian, Russian, and Kurdish with English subtitles
show less
Rated NR (Adult Situations/Adult Language/Adult Humor) — 90 minutes — in Armenian, Russian, and Kurdish with English subtitles
"Vodka Lemon" just might be the world's iciest postcard film: you will never be so happy to sit inside a cozy, theater as when you watch the actors exhaling clouds of warm breath over the blindingly white expanse. But the thicket of relationships that the director, Hiner Saleem, has created and weaves his cast and camera through is so invitingly hotblooded and crowded with hilariously melodramatic incident that the snowbanks are not nearly as forbidding as they initially seem. The picture starts with an old man being pulled across the snowy wastes on his bed, an image right out of a dream. But Mr. Saleem's gifts come from giving these outlandish visual statements a grounding in the everyday reality that the characters experience. "Vodka Lemon" charts the intermingling — marriages, death and sexual complications — in an Armenian village. Chief among the citizens is the wily Hamo, played by Romik Avinian. Hamo has begun a flirtation with a much younger woman, the 50-ish widow Nina (Lala Sarkissian). She feels a void in her life, and he simply recognizes now as the time for both of them to move into a new adventure. Mr. Saleem understands that need is the central motivating force in the villagers' lives: for heat, food, emotional humidity and clarity. Mr. Saleem's layering does compensate for the lack of formal structure. But the picture does not need an elaborately contrived plot. What it has instead is a neighborly, fresh-air quality; all the doors in the miniature snow-globe of a town are open, as is the chatter and curiosity about everyone's familial intrigues. "Vodka Lemon" could be an Ice Capades version of a Beckett play, with a group of seasoned though modest hammy actors in complete control. Their affectlessness gives the movie an atmosphere of hypothermia-laced surrealism, with shots of drama serving the same purpose as the vodka; both keep the blood flowing. This movie has an antic, mordant visual poetry that matches up with the rancor and feeling in its population's souls. — Elvis Mitchell, NY Times
Rated NR (Adult Situations/Adult Language/Adult Humor) — 90 minutes — in Armenian, Russian, and Kurdish with English subtitles
read more
Rated NR (Adult Situations/Adult Language/Adult Humor) — 90 minutes — in Armenian, Russian, and Kurdish with English subtitles
show less
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