12 (2009)

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As in the Sidney Lumet's film 12 Angry Men, all this film is

confined to one jury room, were a verdict is being worked on the question of guilt of a young man accused of the 1st degree murder of his step-father. But for that general setting and a few turns of the story here and there, there is no further similarity. Its is a truly Russian story as the deliberation of the jury touch at the heart of what fills the hearts and souls of the people present in that room - even those that might not appear directly

relevant to the guilt or innocence of the accused.

It's the hearts and souls that really create the tone of the arguments. And the people involved are very different: a laborer from the city subway rail transport system, the CEO

of a joint Russian-Japanese corporation, a director of a cemetery, a producer of a small television company, a cab driver and a variety show performer.

It is a Russian story, in spite of the fact that ethnically they are all different - there is an old Jew, a Georgian Surgeon among the jurors. And when the suggestion is made by one of them, who at the beginning voted against a quick guilty vote, but rather to talk over the things that appear amiss, the case no longer appears to be a simply a matter of black and white. They begin to talk about the things that worries them, about the situation in the country which is going through the turmoil of a transition period, things that are not said on television, nor in the printed media, but are a perennial subject in every kitchen causing heated debates wherever people congregate.

It is about who is to blame for the things that are not going the right way in the country. It's about the Russian person not accustomed to living by the book, because law abiding is trivial and boring, and in Russia its all about hear and soul - not the Law. And they discover that hear and soul are there in each and everyone in the room. It's just that response time with every person present is different, as they have different histories of

resentments, which like crusted wounds cover their souls.

The most vivid supporter of the guilty verdict is a brutal type of character - the taxi man, an ardent ethnic chauvinist, who believes that the boy is guilty just because he is a Chechen, an Abo - the tribesman, which places him automatically as the bad guy. And the taxi man all of a sudden reveals a bizarre story of a relationship with his own son, whom nearly drove him to suicide.

Its seems sometimes that the Juror forget about what brought them there in the first place, the need to announce a verdict for the Chechen boy - the differences among them being so great. The same taxi man hates all immigrants from other cities and countries, because his Moscow seems to him not like the Moscow he once knew, and the Georgen surgeon, who does not speak Russian very well, is trying to find out from him who exactly the classified as a wild Aboriginal tribesman: Pirosmani, Danelia, Paradjanov, Shota Rusaveli, who?!

And the metro builder, who concurred with the taxi man's verdict initially in thinking that all foreigners are beasts by definition, suddenly starts talking about his own uncle, an

electrician, who has nothing to do with the matter at hand, who got himself into a complicated tragic-comedic situation as a result of an unfortunate loss in a casino and who nearly became a terrorist, when he seized hostages demanding the lost money

returned, but it ended peacefully and no one was hurt because...the metro builder has problems expressing is thoughts which are turning clumsily in his worker's head...Because the good guys must be helped and the bad guys must be dead...

And even the cynical variety show performer, who is getting late for his tour, who took it all as a source for his punts on stage at first, suddenly finds himself starting a tragic monologue about the only smile he earned once in his life. Because he gets terrified looking at the audience while he is on stage, when people are ready to laugh at everything - the perished in earthquakes, the killer militia men, and they only laugh because they are scared.

The film is a constant swing from funny to deeply tragic. It reminds a symphonic performance: there is a time when it takes the audience by its melody, getting through to everyone in the house and makes one feel that he/she is on the other side of the screen, in that room where the jurors are. Although the story is very Russian in its tone, and in spite of the Russian justice system being still very far from what is generally accepted in the

democratic world, the global problems of humanity which are given credence in the picture are akin to everyone.

Director      : Nikita Mikhalkov
Writer        : Nikita Mikhalkov
Starring      : Mikita Mikhalkov, Sergey Makovetsky, Sergey Garmash, Alexy Petrenko, Valentin Graft, Yury Stoyanov, Mikhail Efremov, Sergey Gazarov, Alexander Adabashian, Victor Verzhbitsky, Alexey Gorbunov, Roman Madianov, Sergey Artsybashev
Studio        : Sony Pictures Classics
Genre         : Horror, Thriller
Official Site : sonyclassics.com/12
Rating        : PG-13 violent images, disturbing content, thematic material, brief sexual and drug references, and smoking
Run Time      : 2 hours 39 minutes