Again the Jewish drama of WWII is brought forward by Russian director Mikhail Uchitelev. An opera singer abandons hope ready to turn herself in when a friend of honour refuses to abandon her and searches for an escape plan.

 

The theme might be ‘outdated’ by previous films we’ve all seen but we can assure you ‘The Way Out’ is not. It is, on the contrary, a beautiful film that caught our attention and kept us stuck in front of the screen. It would be hard and probably unfair to compare anyone to the great classical Russian directors or to compare them to anyone but this WWII drama actually reminded us of Tarkovsky’s or Nikita Mihalkov’s films. Mikhail Uchitelev’s film has something of the same ‘military’ discipline of the great above mentioned directors. His film emanates a similar romanticism, a similar attention to acting and what is expressed through acting and a similar conservatory spirit that you can sense in Mikhail Uchitelev’s scenic movement, his taste for music and his attention on outlining the characters.

 

Actors do a great job expressing anything that is needed beyond the dialogue, the sets are credible, cinematography is good and the emotion flowing. It lasted for 30 minutes however we felt like after a feature. The film is entertaining, it has action, drama and suspense and a few twists that keeps the viewer motivated.

 

‘The Way Out’ is one we recommend to nostalgic film fans, to the intellectual ones and to those who miss a good classical piece of cinema like they once used to do.

 

 

TMFF RATING: