Crystal Swan [Khrustal] **** (2018, Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin, Yuriy Borisov) – Movie Review

Director/ co-writer Darya Zhuk’s Crystal Swan [Khrustal] is an amusing and engaging Russian comedy set in Nineties Belarus, where young DJ Velya (Alina Nasibullina) is forced by a phone number typo in her forged US Visa application to go to a backwater village to get the eccentric locals to answer the phone and verify who she pretends she is.

Well, that is the plan. The frosty phone owner does not like the look of her and will not co-operate, but she is befriended by the phone owner’s sexy young son Alik (Yuriy Borisov), who is about to get married, as well as his little brother. It keeps bright, vibrant and surprising, even with its dark and peculiar edges, though a lot of its success is down to just how appealing and attractive Alina Nasibullina is. Daffy though Velya is, Nasibullina makes sure you are on her side all the way.

Crystal Swan won the Grand Prix at the Odessa International Film Festival in July 2018. It is the official submission of Belarus to the 91st Academy Awards, its first submission in 22 years.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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