There is something not quite right about the small group of Russians living like pagans in an island in the Sakhalin province, in this intriguing thriller.

Every so often a fresh new film arrives out of nowhere that seems unique and thought-provoking. Such a film for this year comes courtesy of C.B film/Silyakoffilm and is called Poteryanniy Ostrov – Lost Island.

First screened at Stalker – the International Human Rights film festival last December, this motion picture received scant pre-publicity. I came across it whilst browsing what was on offer at the Moscow cinemas. This one, at least, was not a vacuous comedy nor about the Second World War and then the romantic poster and the promise of a `mystical thriller` enticed me further. I caught the last showing at the enormous October cinema in Novy Arbat just a few days after its first release on April 4th.

A 90 minute 16+ age limit drama/thriller, Lost Island defies categorisation. This owes to the fact that the film’s origins lie in the theatre: Natalya Moshina reworked her own stage play, then called Rikotu Island and staged twelve years back, for this screen adaptation.

Denis Silyakov whose previous credit was Dom Oknami v Pole – House Facing the Field (2017) directed the film on location on the island of Kunashir, the rugged southernmost island of the Sakhalin archipelago.

Daniil Maslennikov (Kosatka, 2014) plays Igor Voevodin, an economics analyst who produces copy for a magazine in downtown Moscow. His boss – Dmitry Astrakhan (Milliard, 2019) responds to a spot of workplace tension by proposing that the young man take the trip of a lifetime , all paid for by the company. The provisos are that it is to be a journalistic fact-finding mission and also that the destination must be chosen at random from an electronic map.
It is the fictional island of Rikotu, a far Eastern Kuril island in the province of Sakhalin in the Pacific ocean, that Igor’s finger alights.

Following a turbulent crossing on a private vessel,  he arrives at his new abode to find that it is home to just twelve inhabitants who form an alternative community. Their leader is an algae specialist and an alluring young woman called Anya. ((Natalia Frey who also starred in The House Facing the Field). Dwelling in basic wooden huts and subsisting on seafood from the surrounding waters, the people live a spartan life. They also seem to worship a shrimp as their godhead.

Igor, in his capacity as a journalist begins to question the elders of the community such as aunt Sasha Stepanova (played by Tatiana Dogileva, who has some 108 screen and TV appearances on her C.V). He soon hits a wall, however.
The islanders seem not to believe in the existence of Igor’s home city and know little about Russia too. As to how they ended up on Rikotu island, they are just as hazy.

Then when Igor stumbles on the drowned corpse of an islander who had tried to escape the question becomes: will he himself be able to leave and tell the rest of Russia what he has learnt?

The premise – where a metropolitan new world meets a recalcitrant old world – calls to mind the cult British horror movie The Wicker Man (1973). Silyakov, however, handles this material with more finesse. There are no clear villains here and the stress is more on the enigma rather than any Grand Guignol moments that the situation could throw up.

This is a twisty fable worthy of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and it is executed with style and good character acting that avoids teetering into comedy.
Maslennikov is well cast as the innocent all-Moscow boy whereas Frey oozes femme fatale sexuality. Georgy Nazarenko (Monax ii Bes, 2016) is convincing as a grizzled old timer and real natives of Kunashir make up the cast too. Marina Cherkunova, lead singer with the band Total, as Lyusha the malcontent, adds a dash of New Age spice to it all.

Ekaterina Kobsor’s cinematography, bringing out he crystalline rocks and spruce of this desolate environment, and Dmitri Emelyanov’s quasi-classical score help to build up the ambience.

What crowns the whole drama though is the involvement of Total, an underrated Russian alternative rock/trip hop band. Their closing song `Skontachimsiya` (or A.K.A `Let’s Get Fucked in the Sky`) seals the sense of erotic entrapment of the film.

So is this just a strange thriller? One could view Lost Island as a state-of-the-nation statement. A comparison might be made with J.B.Priestley’snovel Benighted (1927) which was later made into a film called The Old Dark House (1932). In this a group of motorists trapped in an old mansion with its crotchety residents serves as a comment on Britain between the wars.

One person who seems to agree with this assessment is Pavel Ruminov writing in the Theatre Times (25th January 2018). Speaking of the original stage play, he characterises it as showing us a Russia`swept into a whirlpool of mysticism and irrationality`.

That said, what remains with you long after the credits have rolled and the cinema lights turned on, is the baleful atmosphere of this distinctive film.

Trailer for the film.

Total song from `Lost Island`

Featured image Copyright: C.B film.