Another northern film (I've seen more snow in the past 24 hours than I saw in February in Toronto this year), set in a work camp in Siberia after the war.
An engineer arrives at the camp to work on one of two aging steam locomotives. The inmates of the camp were Soviet nationals who were captured by the Germans during the war; under the Stalin regime, they are viewed as collaborators with the Nazis and restricted to the camps.
A third train is discovered on an isolated island near the camp, along with a German woman who has newn trapped there for years and has become almost feral.
The middle section of the film is the rescue of the train and the woman by the engineer (note the order), culminating in a train chase that forms the climax.
The attention paid to the production values (and, in particular the three steam trains) is excellent; unfortunately the story never rose above the mediocre.
We were told at the beginning of the screening that this will be the official Russian entry for best foreign film at the Oscars. While visually impressive, I think it would be surprising if this made the short list of nominees. The story and characters are too under-developed to compete with the calibre of films that usually end up on the short list.
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