jeeap It's like a bad dream. You want to turn it off but you cannot. No matter how much you are dissapointed in humankind or cynical you always have some hopes left in you. This movie will bring you to the limit. Nothing exists beyond that. The worst part is you don't realize you're watching a movie, it's so real.

zvisha The film was clearly made to please the Kremlin (or by order from) in time of civil unrest. The only goal of this film was to make the Russian people understand how good is the Putin government for bringing order to Russia, and how horrible and lawless was life in Russia before that. The reality of life in USSR in the 80's was for sure hard, and the Afghanistan war horrible, and the people were poor and full of uncertainty. But to say that this film "does not show a balanced picture of those years" is an understatement. Without knowing the current political situation in Russia it is hard to understand what this movie is trying to say. There are much better films to see made in Russia today without such clear political bias and without government involvement.

padimore99 After watching the film to the end, i launched myself off the chair, toward the television and returned to the beginning - so i could reassure myself that the word 'based on true events' had been written there. He (Alexey balbanov) may have been messing with us or not, but then the complete repulsiveness and disbelief at the fact that human beings are capable of such things, was the most riveting thing. The film and characters deliver a slice of outright realism, social decay, dark and twisted tales i have ever seen. And nowadays in times unsurprising storytelling, this film shocked the hell out of me. It wasn't the disgust of Captain Zhurov nor the helplessness of Angelika (my name-sake) that irritated me, but the sheer intertwining and coincidence that could be experienced in the film. Everyone crossed everyone else's path. This, like others have said, is a very very dark, sick, twisted movie... in a good way. That it keeps you interested and intrigued. I loved it, only with an open mind.

kalmoth A lot of the reviewers of this movie in the media seem to overlook the fact that Balabanov as a director repeatedly demonstrated a very deadpan and a very dark sense of humor. The joke's certainly on them. Watch taking this into consideration. A few more notes. The movie is loosely based on real events, some of the more unfortunate of which allegedly happened with one of the director's friends. The movie caused a major scandal at the 2007 Kinotavr movie festival (Russia's Sundance, pretty much). The awards are given based on the movie critics' vote. That vote was in favor of "Cargo 200" for "Best movie." The festival jury, however, overturned the results of the movie critics' vote and split the award between "Gruz 200" and another movie.Finally... I dig Balabanov, I despise Gaspar Noe, and here's why. Balabanov doesn't take himself too seriously.