Freedom Is Paradise [S.E.R. – Svoboda eto rai] **** (1989, Volodya Kozyrev, Sergei Bodrov Jr, Aleksandr Bureyev, Svetlana Gaytan) – Classic Movie Review 9162

Volodya Kozyrev stars in Freedom Is Paradise as Sasha, a 13-year-old Russian boy who longs for freedom from his state-run special school for difficult children, where is is taken after his mother died. One day he learns by chance the address of the prison where his father is being held. He escapes to find his dad, encountering small kindnesses from strangers along the way.

Writer-director Sergei Bodrov’s superb 1989 film Freedom Is Paradise won the main prize at Montreal in 1990, and, although the story is heartbreaking, the film brings hope, moments of comedy and finally uplift. And freckled, stubborn little Volodya Kozyrev is a wonderfully proud, adult representative of the human spirit.

Freedom Is Paradise is in the tradition of François Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups and almost as good.

Also in the cast are Sergei Bodrov Jr, Aleksandr Bureyev, Svetlana Gaytan, Vitautas Tomkus.

Freedom Is Paradise [S.E.R. – Svoboda eto rai] is directed by Sergei Bodrov, runs 75 minutes, is made by Mosfilm, is written by Sergei Bodrov, is shot by Yuri Skhirtladze, is produced by Victor Trakhtenberg, is scored by Aleksandr Raskatov and is designed by Velery Kostrin.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9162

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