A film adaptation of the bestseller 'Black Flies' has reached Russian cinemas, a participant of last year's Cannes Film Festival—the shocking thriller 'Black Flies' starring Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan.

The plot, as a coherent whole, is absent in Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's film 'Black Flies': the movie breaks down into several frighteningly naturalistic stories from the practice of rookie Ollie (Tye Sheridan) as a paramedic. The mentor for the young trainee is the battle-hardened doctor Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn). Together, they roam the night streets of Brooklyn in an ambulance, philosophizing about the nuances of their profession and the advisability of saving the lives of the terminally ill.

'Black Flies' is like David Ayer's 'End of Watch', only about emergency services and without comedic inserts. In the scenes of performing professional duty, the cinematographer also often resorts to the handheld camera technique, creating the illusion of a pseudo-documentary (mockumentary) and immersing the viewer in the unfolding horror.

The violence shown on screen is extremely naturalistic to the point that some scenes are perceived as outright body horror. Leaving the romanticization of medical work to various TV procedurals, 'Black Flies' strives to depict what those who have taken the Hippocratic oath sometimes actually face. This cannot but traumatize. The film does not glorify rescuers, showing that even among them there are not the most pleasant individuals (for example, the character of Michael Pitt), but it speaks of the heaviest burden that lies on their shoulders.

Special attention deserves the on-screen New York in the film. Rorschach's monologue from 'Watchmen' would perfectly overlay the visuals of 'Black Flies'. This is an oppressive, infernal place where organized crime, xenophobia, and drug addiction flourish. This underworld is inhabited by no less terrifying monsters. Moreover, the film ultimately does not focus on the national factor, as it might seem at first. The actions of the first three stories unfold in a black ghetto, a Mexican quarter, and the apartment of a Russian emigrant.

Roman Kovalev

Top Zack Snyder Films: From Worst to Best

The editorial team of the project 'After the Credits' decided to compile our top Zack Snyder films, ranking them from worst to best.

Open material

But at the same time, ordinary Americans who are not part of any minorities also get it! The film is objective in its hatred of humanity and does not stigmatize the problem, noting a general trend toward decay. It is in this connection that Sean Penn's character metaphorically remarks that we are all already divided into the dead and the dying, and maintaining the existence of the latter is not so necessary, primarily for the dying themselves.

The film's finale still sends humanistic notes of hope to the viewers, showing that not all is lost. Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire has already turned to the deprived and marginalized, to outcasts of society, more than once. His two previous works—'Punk' and 'Dog Pound'—were also about this. 'Black Flies' is objectively an awkward and obviously overloaded work that resembles a documentary chronicle of working days rather than a feature film, but it is also, as it is fashionable to say now, an entertaining experience capable of paralyzing fans of the bloodiest slashers with its harsh realism.

Trailer: