12

80th Academy Awards: Best Foreign Film Nominee
12
2007
Russia
Color
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

Plot: A loose remake of 12 Angry Men (1957), set in a Russian school. 12 jurors are struggling to decide the fate of a Chechen teenager who allegedly killed his Russian stepfather. Stepfather took teenager to live with him to Moscow, during Chechnya war, in which teenager lost his parents. The jurors: a racist taxi-driver, a suspicious doctor, a vacillating TV producer, a Holocaust survivor, a flamboyant musician, a cemetery manager, and others represent the fragmented society of modern day Russia. A stray bird (a touch of New Age cinema) is flying above the jurors' heads, alluding to tolerance. (Written by Steve Shelokhonov)

Theme: Courtroom, Crime

Links: imdb | Wikipedia | Official Website

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