The action of the series takes place in modern Rostov-on-Don. The main character Rav (Kuzma Kotrelev, matured from the Red Bracelets) lives with his mother, works several jobs at once and dreams of going to America. At first glance, Rav is as lazy as his friends: he wanders around apartment parties, where they rap (such “poetry evenings” have long been glorified by Casta, a native Rostov), meets a girl. He doesn’t particularly need it and wants to “make big money fast” to save up for a trip to America.
In the same city – but like in a parallel reality – Rostov has its main gangsters. They are the opposite of Koka (the magnetic, Gela Meskhi, in this role) the ambitious “godfather” of the mafia who wants to subjugate everyone, his rival and Dym (the brilliant Anton Kuznetsov), a twice-incarcerated criminal. who dreams of handing things over to his “student » Ex (Dmitry Chebotarev). Between them, as if between two fires, there is an employee of the Federal Drug Control Service Pashaev (Serebrennikov’s favorite Evgeny Kharitonov), indebted to one and completely humanely sympathetic to the second.
In such a big cauldron, good money and bad people are boiled, who spare no one. Rav joins Smoke’s group – and turns from yesterday’s carving dreamer to a novice criminal, not fully understanding at what price so much “big money” was obtained quickly. At the same time, he falls in love with Koki’s niece Elya, and according to Shakespeare’s laws, the bandit only wants to see someone from his own circle.
The hero of Kuznetsov, a caring father and loving husband, instructs the young Rav: “You must have a beloved woman, because such a person is nearby – this is your inner warning system, an alarm system.” At the same time, competent and insightful Smoke, skillfully dealing with his rivals, does not notice how he himself is in bed with the enemy – his wife is cheating on him with his best friend.
The first thing that catches YuZZZ is an insignificant cast that brings together recognizable, but not boring actors: the aforementioned Meskhi and Kuznetsov, Maria Mashkova, Dmitry Chebotarev, Kuzma Kotrelev, Maria Matsel, Evgeny Kharitonov and Fardi Samedov. Debut film – RMA graduate known under the pseudonym Fardi.
These are interesting and lively faces that stand out. These are lively and interesting characters whose fate you want to trace. Moreover, it is a cruel fate that each of them will have to fight in the end.
In Rav’s room, wallpaper depicting the Golden Gate Bridge flaunts across the entire wall, emphasizing the California dream as an opportunity to escape the harsh reality around it. Although, ironically, he gets bogged down even more inside.
In general, the walls in “YuZZZ” can talk – and say a lot. In Coca’s office, a loose reproduction of a poster of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty hangs on the wall. The hero of the Italian movie admitted in one of the scenes: “I wanted to be a king. And I became one.” Koka also dreams of becoming the sole ruler of Rostov, who must remove his main rival, the Smoke. Meanwhile, on the wall of his office is nothing but a clock, a symbol of time when he has little time left.
All in the same “Great Beauty” there was a phrase that Kuznetsov’s heroine could easily utter in “YUZZZ”: “I realized one important thing: I can no longer waste time doing what I don’t want to do.” Duman, who has been in prison twice, managed to get out of the prison, but has not yet been able to get out of the inner dungeon.
The second important participant in history is Rostov-on-Don itself: a city similar to many cities and at the same time unlike anything else. The producers of the series – the wives of Yuri Sapronov and Natalya Lazareva – admit that they originally planned to shoot in Moscow, but they were so bored with the glamorous capital that the project was transferred to Rostov. Stas Ivanov, the writer and director of the show, has temporarily moved to a southern city to gather texture that reflects so organically in the final result: the characters’ speaking style, jargon, and intonation are strictly Rostov. And, as the composer of the series, Kazi from Rostov, emphasizes, in the series it comes “without teasing and teasing.” According to the same Kazi, he sang most of the music on the project (and not only rap, but also compositions of various genres), even before he read the script for the first four episodes and was imbued with the spirit of history. .
Returning to the screenshot of Rostov, there is a lot of neon in the series: bright red and cold blue. This contrast is a vivid symbol of Ivanov’s whole world, where beauty coexists with ugliness, an employee of the Federal Drug Control Service – with the main gangsters of the city and his first love – with the sobering reality of adulthood.
But what the series lacked was strong female characters. The heroes of “UZZZ” are devoid of subjectivity. Presented as a trophy to fight for (and needing not only her heart but Koki’s approval), Polina is defined only through the two men she loves. And Mama Rava … a mother who constantly wants to take out the trash and can call the police in case of a mess. Lena, whom Rav does not meet as much as she just sleeps, is a thing, not a person.
There is no self-sufficiency in these beautiful women with strong potential (each of which can be revealed more deeply and more interestingly) – unfortunately, they are like a background in the strictly masculine world of men. I would like to see the heroes not as quarreling lovers or vague objects of desire, but as individuals who influence the plot and add “YUZZZ” to the world on an internal scale.
In fact, Ivanov’s series is in many ways about how difficult it is to let go of the past and decide to step into the future, how destructive habitual patterns and learned helplessness can be. And also about the fact that the world, drenched in violence, sweat, and blood, is finite and will one day destroy itself. And one of the possibilities of salvation in this doomed paradigm is the courage to stand up to evil. And as life has proven, it is women who cope best with this struggle.
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The series is available on the Premier platform, later it will air on NTV.