Rent Compartment No. 6 (2022)

Interesting 'Road' Romance Film - Compartment No. 6 review by GI

This Finnish/Russian production is basically a romantic road movie albeit set on a claustrophobic train where two unlikely passengers are forced together. Laura (Seidi Haarla) is a Finnish student studying in Moscow who is encouraged by her teacher and lover to head to the bleak city of Murmansk to view the ancient cave paintings. Laura finds she is on the long train journey forced to share a compartment with the boorish, rude and often drunk miner, Lyokha (Yuriy Borisov). She considers abandoning the trip half way due to his behaviour but a call to her lover reveals that perhaps their relationship isn't all that Laura assumed and so she is sort of trapped into continuing the journey. But as they interact more Laura and Lyokha begin to see in each other something missing in both their lives and a gentle attraction and romance begins. As relationship dramas go this is interesting, touching and a small window into modern life in Russia. It's not a film that necessarily runs a predictable happy course but it does engross the viewer in these two unhappy and beguiling characters.

Boredom - Compartment No. 6 review by HM

A Finnish (bi-sexual) girl meets a drunken Russian on a train. How any female could develop a relationship with this idiot I don't know. I found myself winding the movie on to avoid anymore poinless mundane conversation between them. He comes across as a drunken Norman Wisdom 'the Gimp' but without being funny! A dull story and not well paced at all. Will you stay awake? Probably not.

Enjoyable, if unlikely, Russian-Finnish-Estonian Road Movie by Train - with Snow & Ice & Vodka! - Compartment No. 6 review by PV

The tone of this film is more Finnish than Russian, and all the better for it, though it is a co-production.

I had to seriously suspend disbelief here as what happens in the first act (no spoilers) would make most if not all Western women screaming and demanding police action. SO it could not be a film set in Britain then BUT things get wilder and laxer out east...

I have shared a trains sleeper carriage, Amsterdam to Berlin, 4 in a carriage, no security, which surprised me at the time (1990s). Now, with anti-Western Russian feeling, I doubt this 2021 level of friendliness would be possible, sadly. Russia as USSR has always hated independent travellers, does not hate foreigners but distrusts them, esp from the West (I have personal experience here, from childhood, having met real live USSR Russians visiting us from the age of 8).

I enjoyed the ride which is all a metaphor or allegory for the futility of existence really, and the journey being the point, not the destination. Nice and gloomy and typical Russian to be honest.

It's set now, but of course Russian trains are not at Western 21st C levels and the towns/cities visited are the sort of hellholes I am always thankful were not my home. THIS I though when a child I went to the USS for a week 3 days Leningrad which I liked (now Petersburg) and 3 or 4 in Moscow (didn't like it). So I DID the exact train journey this young woman does, Moscow to St Petersburg but the other way. It was 7 hours when I did it, with wooden seats (yes, really) and I seem to remember lunch given to us where we sat was a lump of rye bread and cheese of a sort... Very basic indeed. BUT it was USSR pre-Gorbachev. The landscape for 7 hours were entirely flat between Leningrad and Moscow, all snowy, and my young eyes looked at people trudging wearily through the snow, babishkas galore, as I thought: "Thank God I wasn't born here'. Tbh I have had similar feelings passing through parts of England and Wales, though I would never want to insult Norwich or Neath by naming them. LOL

Does it work as a film? Yes, for adults. Anyone wanting fast action or plots with lots of happenings, this is not the film for you. I really REALLY liked the use of extras and amateur actors - makes it all so authentic, that very generous but slightly scary of often drunk-on-vodka stoical fateful brave accepting Russian character.

I particularly liked the old lady the young Russian for some reason visits. An extra for sure, not a pro actress. I was amazed when she referred to her 15 year old self as being 43 years ago, which would make her 58. Only 58!!! She looked 78! That's what Russia does to you... the harshness, the poverty, the cold, the diet, the vodka...

Anyhoo, it's original and 'inspired' by a novel, it says, so not sure how closely it sticks to that source.

Surprisingly enjoyable to watch so 4 stars.