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| Images courtesy of Independent |
France and Russia are somewhat alike in that the most
transgressive underground shocker films of their respective countries are being
made by women. With France the
torchbearer belongs to Catherine Breillat for Romance, Fat Girl and
Anatomy of Hell, films that blended real sex with her cryptic
sociological outlook on male-female relationships. In modern Russia the enfant-terrible behind
perhaps the grimiest film in the world next to August Underground is artist-writer-producer-director
Svetlana Baskova with her sublimely disgusting The Green Elephant.
Filmed by herself and her co-producer Oleg
Mavromatti on grainy crackly VHS videotape, the film is a naked mouth agape
tongue dangling swan dive into filth and vermin, a movie that tests the gag
reflexes while also being a sly social commentary protesting the Chechen War which
lasted from 1999 to 2009. While
ostensibly designed to repel and enrage the viewer, the film is less Pier Paolo
Pasolini’s Salo than it is John Waters’ Pink Flamingos which Baskova
cited as an influence.
Somewhere around 1986 in a nameless military prison reside two Soviet Army junior officers (played by Vladimir Epinfantsev and Sergey Pakhomov) in a dimly lit green basement cell replete with leaky pipes that drip with urine. Whiling away the time the two trade stories about each-others’ sex lives before the older bald and bearded man starts talking the younger man’s ear off, the film starts out as a slow dialogue-heavy prolonged wallow in squalor before the two get into a physical altercation with a superior officer forcing one of them to clean a rusty dirty toilet with a kitchen fork.
From here, the film then
proceeds to erupt into a torrential outpouring of taboo imagery including but
not limited to coprophagy, physical torture, torn throats, face eating, oral
rape and blood drenched sodomy. Interspersed
with black-and-white flashbacks hinting at actions leading to the present chain
of events, all gradually building up towards a Grand Guignol explosion of crimson,
shit and piss.
Partially a psychedelic endurance test of the gag reflexes with just a hint of it all being an Aristocrats joke, partly a mean and mad formal declaration of corruption within the Russian military, The Green Elephant successful or not in its aims as it stands is one of the most disgusting and disturbing SOV films ever made. The Russian answer to Fred Vogel, Nick Palumbo or Jörg Buttgereit, it picks up maggot infested slime from the floor and eagerly gobbles it up. So provocatively vile in its foul language, violent and graphic imagery, The Green Elephant has the stigma of being buried in its country of origin.
Partially a psychedelic endurance test of the gag reflexes with just a hint of it all being an Aristocrats joke, partly a mean and mad formal declaration of corruption within the Russian military, The Green Elephant successful or not in its aims as it stands is one of the most disgusting and disturbing SOV films ever made. The Russian answer to Fred Vogel, Nick Palumbo or Jörg Buttgereit, it picks up maggot infested slime from the floor and eagerly gobbles it up. So provocatively vile in its foul language, violent and graphic imagery, The Green Elephant has the stigma of being buried in its country of origin.
After
receiving a limited theatrical run, the film was banned from distribution
entirely in Belarus and Russia after the court of St. Petersburg ruled it was
potentially dangerous to younger viewers.
Nevertheless, after 2010 the film amassed a viral cult following among
internet trolls who would make mocking music videos and YouTube poop editorials
with clips from the film included. Nine
times out of ten, most of the trolls serving up the repulsive snippets akin to
a LiveLeak video haven’t given the film itself the time of day.
Of course the full thorny poop stained smelly bore of Baskova’s vision would not be nearly as searing with biting horseflies without the brave and fearless performances of its ensemble cast. Though only consisting of five actors total (none of which were paid by the way), the two leads Sergey Pakhomov and Vladimir Epifantsev go as far as they can in degrading themselves for Baskova’s art.
Of course the full thorny poop stained smelly bore of Baskova’s vision would not be nearly as searing with biting horseflies without the brave and fearless performances of its ensemble cast. Though only consisting of five actors total (none of which were paid by the way), the two leads Sergey Pakhomov and Vladimir Epifantsev go as far as they can in degrading themselves for Baskova’s art.
Looking at Baskova herself, a
beautiful and stunning woman, in a way despite the stark contrast between the
film’s content and its director suggests this could’ve have been made by
anybody else. Certainly a male director
wouldn’t so confidently dive deep into discomforting and repugnant sexual
deviances and/or tortures with such vivid clarity that gets under the viewer’s
skin. This septic tank of a movie does
not look like it was enjoyable to make at all and Baskova wades above-waist
deep in its wretched waters.
Can you recommend this movie let alone sit through it? Probably not as its stench is too foul for many to come near. However, if the folks at Unearthed Films are listening, fans of artier transgressive cinema with a measure of purpose behind it will be enthralled by this exploding toilet bowl of a film. As a work of political protest, like A Serbian Film its message sometimes gets lost amid the fecal matter and as the film’s soundtrack needle drops of Pantera, Iron Butterfly and King Missile flood the soundtrack one gets the sense this will appeal to death metal edge lords.
Whether
or not this gross out vomitorium actually does work as political cinema ala The
Devils, Salo or The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover lies
in the eyes of the beholder. But as far
as churning the stomach with some measure of discourse about the Russian
military intended to anger its intended domestic audience, The Green
Elephant succeeds in that regard.
--Andrew Kotwicki
