Everyone has their own final stop

It’s interesting to watch the so-called ultra-budget films, because they are usually made without extravagance, without regard for the box office receipts or the opinion of the producer. This is the short film by Arseny Gonchukov “The Final Stop”. I suggest readers watch this film.

So, the entire narrative in the film is clearly divided into two parts, practically unrelated to each other. The only thing they have in common plot-wise is the presence of the same main character. Actually, the plot itself is very simple. In the first part, the skinhead helps fight off a guy who was attacked by two Caucasians (albeit, then finishing off one of them with a screwdriver in the chest - this detail escaped me during the first viewing), in the second he becomes a “hunter” without any reservations (this time no one will need to be saved in a fight). A young man with short hair and a swastika tattoo on his neck boards an almost empty bus, where he sees a foreigner with a non-Slavic appearance. Both the hunter and the prey are very clearly defined and even spatially occupy a certain position: the victim is sitting, the hunter is standing above him, blocking the path to retreat.

But the skinhead’s plan is constantly interfered with by some external circumstances, by random people. However, what is happening is not just a hindrance, it seems to excite certain reverse currents in the hunter, opposing the turbulent flow of prejudices that are hateful towards other races. At some point, it even begins to seem that he stops seeing his victim as a victim. At one of the stops, a mother and her two young daughters get off. When the doors on the bus close and the girl passenger does not have time to get off, both even physically leave their spatial places of hunter and victim: the foreigner played by actor Stepanyan rushes to the driver, the skinhead screams and knocks on the doors. The girl comes out, the doors close again. The appearance of children and the desire to help them (to pick up a fallen scoop, to open doors) reconciled the parties for a while and cleared the atmosphere.

Visually we will no longer see the position of the victim and the position of the hunter. The next stop is the final one, and both stand at the exit together, shoulder to shoulder, at the same level.

The bus is like an experimental chamber with transparent walls through which the viewer looks at what is happening from the outside. As you can see, in a short time there is, although not a global, evolution of views.

But as soon as the hunter and the prey find themselves outside the context of that closed space-bus, as soon as they disappear, random interference eliminates itself, the scales begin to tip. What seemed settled is easily thrown out of balance by some kind of predatory, bestial instincts, and how such vacillation will end—a fragile peace or a torrent of violence—is not clear until the very end.

For me, the meaning of this picture is that any event cannot be taken out of context, and the context itself can radically change the opinion about what is happening. The first part, which is clearly not the main part of the film, is nevertheless very important. Thanks to her, we see the influence of context: a couple of asocial elements enjoying Lezginka are the complete opposite of the intellectual on the bus. The second thought is that there is always hope for victory in a person of his best beginnings. This is not a primitive “good always triumphs over evil,” but only hope, but it always exists, and even the most asocial elements of society can change, perhaps unconsciously, but they can change! And the movement itself is symbolic here. Our whole life is a movement from one stop to another. And each of them can become a turning point in the system of values ​​and views. And everything always ends at the final stop. Only everyone has their own.

Overall, the film turned out well, it was interesting to watch (and a short film can be made inexpressibly dull and drawn out!), but still it is unlikely to evoke strong emotions. There are simply no such emotional hooks in the film that the viewer would cling to; they are hidden deeply, and therefore they are no longer hooks. This is the kind of movie where you have to make a big effort on yourself in order to comprehend, understand, and get excited. Externally, on the surface, this cannot be found. Who will surprise you now with the notorious “national question”?