Two in One – Dva vodnom (2007)

Directed by: Kira Muratova | 124 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Alexander Bashirov, Sergey Bekhterev, Natalya Buzko, Renata Litvinova, Nina Ruslanova, Bogdan Stupka

‘Two in One’ is a confusing and weird film about a theater group where a few are killed, but who then stage a play for an audience. As a film viewer, you then also watch the play by the theater group. So two in one.

It starts with a suicide on the scene. Or is it suicide? An actor has hung himself on stage with his costume on. A clumsy stagehand finds him and takes him down. That turns out to be a big mistake. He is hung up again and then brought down again. One by one, the members of the drama group come to watch the dead man to say goodbye. Although, it seems as if they don’t realize it all because there is no sadness. Or is it all game? It is, after all, a drama group. In short: all confusion.

If there is then another death, no attention is paid to it at all. It’s time to start the play. Here begins part two of the film. A man lives with his daughter. He is looking for true love and will do anything for it. Although fortunately nothing is explicitly shown or said, director Kira Muratova makes it clear that the relationship between father and daughter is an incestuous one. Dangerous point, because this topic is quite taboo. As a viewer you still have a strange feeling about this. When the daughter also invites her friend to please her father, the film changes from a small to a large question mark.

Muratova has already won many awards at film festivals, especially in Russia and Ukraine, but she also won awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990. So expectations are high for a Muratova film. However, ‘Two in One’ is a bit strange and it is certainly not a movie to watch. The two stories in the film are so disconnected that it is difficult to find a connection. It’s like watching another movie after an hour. The only similarity is that they are both equally bizarre stories, although the story of the play is the most extreme. ‘Two in One’ isn’t for viewers who don’t like bizarre, weird and horrible storylines, which are taboo and perhaps should have remained so. For the braver viewers who are in for a strange film, it can be quite an interesting viewing experience.