Directed by Aleksei Popogrebsky
(Not Rated)
***
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On the surface, Aleksei Popogrebsky’s film about two meteorologists alone in the Arctic is a “gripping survival drama” pitting man against nature, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. Yet there’s so much more to this award-winning Russian film. How I Ended This Summer is at once a psychological thriller, a tale about Russia’s generational divide, and a “merciless contemplation of the fragile human psyche under siege.” It can be a bit hard at times to understand these characters’ psyches, said Kirk Honeycutt in The Hollywood Reporter. While it’s clear enough that Sergei is a gruff veteran of his trade who has little patience for recent college grad Pavel, we’re never clued in to why Pavel would decide to keep to himself an urgent message meant for his station partner. The decision doesn’t have to make sense, said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. Once it’s made, Pavel is doomed to trap himself in lies, until his only escape from a “murderous Sergei” seems to be venturing out alone into the Arctic fog. In the end, the great struggle of these two men to understand each other “carries the weight” of a Tolstoy novel.
