“Products 24” is both a quasi-documentary portrait of Russia’s migration problem and a bitter fairy tale about how dreams don’t always come true.

The acclaimed Russian film “Products 24”, a participant of the Berlin International Film Festival, is hitting Russian screens… I’d like to start this text with that phrase, but the fact is that Mikhail Borodin’s work is not getting a wide release. Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of Metrafilms (a special bow to them!), it could be seen not only in the two capitals but also in several major cities of our vast country. And there is plenty to see.

Conquering the Capital

From the very first seconds, the camera of debutant Ekaterina Smolina plunges us into the uncomfortable, disquieting atmosphere of a gloomy back room where a marriage ceremony according to the laws of Islam is taking place. In the very next scene, a girl named Mukhabbat (Zuhara Sansyzbay), having emerged from this room in her new status, serves a store customer, making it clear that something is wrong here.

It turns out that Mukhabbat, like several other people from Central Asian countries, finds herself in a slave-like situation in a small grocery store, where they are beaten for shortages, can be raped for an attractive appearance, and thinking about escape is akin to death. This is clearly not what the young people who left to conquer the Russian capital dreamed of.

Unfabricated Cruelty

“Products 24” is a very harsh film. The director and cinematographer, in certain episodes, seem to revel in on-screen violence. To such an extent that in one of the film’s scenes, even the most hardened viewer will want to look away or close their eyes. But it’s hardly worth counting this as a flaw of the film — the subject matter demands it. People who find themselves hostages in a situation where they have neither documents nor help from local law enforcement are psychologically broken. And physical violence only completes the picture of hopelessness.

At the heart of this story are real events from 2012, when people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan fell into a trap set by criminals who confiscated their passports and forced them to work under slave-like conditions (the media later even dubbed them the “Golyanovo slaves”). One of the girls who survived this nightmare and told the filmmakers how everything really happened received a cameo role in the film. This circumstance gives the film “Products 24” a documentary effect.

Questions of Artistic Value

It is impossible to abstract from the fact that “Products 24” tells a horrifying true story. But still, this is a work of fiction, which means it should contain more than just the known circumstances. Mikhail Borodin tried to introduce elements of fairy-tale quality — the heroine Mukhabbat keeps having metaphorical dreams featuring fish, geese on a train, and people of inhuman height.

This solution looks impressive. Here we must make another bow to cinematographer Ekaterina Smolina, who shoots everyday scenes with equal spectacle, focusing on small details, the neon-lit streets of non-ceremonial Moscow, and fantastic etudes.

But this seems insufficient: the symbolism in the dream episodes is too straightforward, and there is no acting to be seen even in such detached-from-reality moments.

The stinginess and dryness of emotions is perhaps the main scourge of the film. It is difficult to feel sympathy for the characters as individuals, rather than as people caught in an extraordinary situation. This can be compared to reading an information note on Wikipedia — you cannot help but be surprised and horrified by what happened, but you can hardly see the characters behind the names.

“Products 24” is an interesting and ambitious film that raises an important social issue that is not usually discussed openly. It is not entirely successful from an artistic point of view, but such films are needed so that we stop turning a blind eye to what is happening right under our noses and become at least a little kinder to those who serve us behind store counters and beyond.

Trailer: