''Unclenching the Fists'' (russian: Разжимая кулаки, Razzhimaya kulaki) is a 2021 Russian
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Kira Kovalenko
Kira Takhirovna Kovalenko ( rus, Кира Тахировна Коваленко, born 12 December 1989) is a Russian film director and screenwriter.
Biography
After school, Kovalenko went to college and graduated in web-design. In 2010-2015 s ...
. In July 2021, the film won the
Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
award at the
2021 Cannes Film Festival
The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after t ...
. It was selected as the Russian entry for the
Best International Feature Film at the
94th Academy Awards
The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles. The awards were scheduled after its u ...
.
Plot
Ada, an Ossetian girl, plans an escape from her life in a small town of
Mizur in
North Ossetia
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
, Russia.
[
]
Cast
* Milana Aguzarova as Ada
* Alik Karayev as Father
* Soslan Khugayev as Akim
Reception
On review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''Salon.com
''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events.
Content and coverage
''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
''s Gary M. Kramer, praised the director's view calling it " nurgent, unsentimental approach swhat makes ''Unclenching the Fists'' so potent".
Diego Semerene of ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' wrote "Unclenching the Fists is a tale of how the desolation of a nation inhabits and engraves a woman's body".
See also
*
* List of Russian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unclenching The Fists
2021 drama films
Russian drama films
Ossetian-language films