4 is a 2004 Russian drama film directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky after a screenplay by Vladimir Sorokin. Originally it was conceived as a short film, but turned into a full-length film after four years of work.
Plot Meat merchant Oleg, prostitute Marina, and piano tuner "simply Volodya" drop into an all-night bar in Moscow, where they are served by a narcoleptic bartender (three plus one is four) while each regales the others with made-up biographies. Oleg claims to work in President Putin's administration, supplying him with bottled water and his wife with liquor; Marina passes herself off as a marketing executive; and Volodya, the infamous lead singer of the rock group Leningrad, as a geneticist who clones twins (two times two makes four, again) in a laboratory that has been engaged in these experiments since the days of Stalin. After they separate, these fantasy realities, especially Volodya's, begin to dominate their everyday lives.
Cast Marina Vovchenko as Marina Sergey Shnurov as Volodya Yuri Laguta as Oleg Konstantin Murzenko as Marat Alexei Khvostenko as a Man with No Age Anatoly Adoskin as Oleg's Father Leonid Fyodorov as Sergey Andrey Kudryashov as a Bartender Shavkat Abdusalamov as a Meat-Processing Plant Manager Natalya Tetenova as Sveta Irina Vovchenko as Sonya Svetlana Vovchenko as Vera
Reception Critical response On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".https://www.metacritic.com/movie/4?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c Awards The film won the VPRO Tiger Award (shared with Daniele Gaglianone's Changing Destiny and Mercedes Álvarez's The Sky Turns) at the 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
References
External links
4 at the British Film Institute Julia Vassilieva ROUGE review