Tolstoy
asks, "Why does a man enjoy killing?" In House
of Fools (Dom durakov), a Russian film directed by Andrei
Konchalovsky, a true story filmed at what serves as an
insane asylum, mental patients are caught in the middle
of the Chechen War. In the early part of the film, we become
acquainted with several patients, who are obsessives with
a limited ability to cope with the vicissitudes of reality.
Only the accordion music of Zhanna (played by Yuliya Vysotskaya)
serves to cheer up the group, but she only knows one song--a
lively polka. She believes that pop singer Bryan Adams
(who plays himself in reverie shortcuts) is her fiancé,
and the wall in her room is plastered with his pictures.
Her music is regularly featured at well-attended physical
therapy sessions. The deplorable conditions of the asylum
are exposed in the film, with the resident physician (played
by Vladas Begondas) doing his best. One day in 1996 the
telephone line is cut, so the physician realizes that the
Chechens have invaded that part of Russia, namely Ingushetia;
he then leaves to get busses to transport the patients
to a safer place, but his effort comes too late. While
the patients await a return of authority, they do a good
job of caring for each other; having been released from
captivity, they engage in various forms of therapy, including
a woman who swings in the nude from a rafter. The Chechens
soon take over the property where the asylum is located
to set up camp, but not before terrorizing the patients
in a vain effort to locate armed Russian soldiers. Zhanna's
accordion is confiscated by Ahmed (played by Sultan Islamov),
one of the soldiers, so she later follows the sound of
his music; when she finds him, surrounded by his army buddies,
she informs him that she owns the accordion, can play a
tune, and even can dance. After playing and dancing, Ahmed
proposes, entirely as a joke, to marry her. When she returns
to her room, she wonders whether she can disappoint her
fiancé Bryan Adams, but soon she gets dressed for
a wedding, an activity that captivates the rest of the
patients, though outspoken patient Vika (played by Marina
Politsejmako) sobs that she will miss her music. Then Zhanna
goes to the area where the Chechens are dining to present
herself as Ahmed's bride. After some hilarity, Ahmed tries
to let her down gently, but soon the Russians announce
their presence with a tank and a white flag. The Russians
have a body of a Chechen, so they ask the Chechens to identify
the body; the aim is to make money by selling the body
and some munitions to the Chechens for US$2,000. The Chechens
agree. While the money is being counted, the Russian commander
realizes that the Chechen commander saved his life in a
battle in Afghanistan; as a result, the Russian refuses
to take he $2,000, leaves the body with the Chechens, and
departs. After an interval, the Russians bombard the area
where the asylum is located, the Chechens retreat, and
the Russians take over the compound. In a sweep of the
building, the Russians kill a few Chechen defenders, but
one man eludes them. The philosophical anti-war film ends
as the last remaining Chechen takes his place at the dinner
table with the patients, and the physician permits him
to stay. The soldier, who pretends to be a civilian, commits
possibly the sanest act in the film. Certainly by now,
filmviewers will be convinced that the Chechen War is absurd.
Rather than a quote from Tolstoy, the director might have
chosen Rousseau instead: "To be sane is a world a
madmen is itself a form of madness." MH
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