How I Ended This Summer (2010)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,235
My Rating
Movie Info
On a desolate island in the Arctic Circle, two men work at a small meteorological station, taking readings from their radioactive surroundings. Sergei, a gruff professional in his fifties, takes his job very seriously. His new partner, bright eyed college grad Pavel, retreats to his MP3 player and video games to avoid Sergei's imposing presence. One day while Sergei is out, inexperienced Pavel receives terrible news for Sergei from HQ. Intimidated, Pavel can't bring himself to disclose the
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Cast
-
Grigori Dobrygin
Pavel -
Sergei Puskepalis
Sergei -
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How I Ended This Summer Trailer & Photos
All Critics (43) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (9) | DVD (1)
So-called 'slow cinema', if executed with delicacy, has the power to exert a trance-like hold over us, but this one falls flat at every dreary hurdle.
Top CriticWhat stays with the viewer is a sense of a man unraveling from his own mistakes and weaknesses.
Just when you think that nothing more is going to happen, all hell breaks loose in the form of a deadly game of cat and mouse.
How I Ended This Summer combines memorable images of the gorgeous, rugged wilderness, meticulous sound design that emphasizes the characters' isolation, a dash of dark wit and a dose of madness.
Popogrebsky sets up the quiet tensions between his two generationally divided characters like a chess match pocked with occasional power grabs...
Playing an ignoble protagonist, Dobrygin keeps his motives always quietly evident; later, lost in a fog painted red by an emergency flare, he's an abject vision of man in a hell of his own making.
Bleak and unfulfilling psychological thriller set at a Russian meteorological camp on a desolate island in the Arctic Circle.
A cinematic and dramatic treat, this spectacular piece of contemporary Russian filmmaking follows two meteorologists stationed on a remote Arctic island. An allegory on old and new Russia, it's part art-house thriller and part atmospheric poetry.
Though gripping for large stretches, the lack of forthcoming information - especially with regards to Pavel - proves more frustrating than enigmatic, with the tension dissipating at crucial moments.
It has a pared down quality that invites, indeed virtually compels, the viewer to see it as some kind of allegory.
It proceeds at a dour and Russian kind of pace, mildly intriguing without ever cranking up the pressure to become compelling.
It proceeds at a dour and Russian kind of pace, mildly intriguing without ever cranking up the pressure to become compelling.
The unravelling of trust and compassion is not always convincing but director Alexsei Popogrebsky's sense of place and pace ensures that it remains thoroughly compelling.
A gripping, involving and wonderfully acted piece of work.
How I Ended This Summer is everything you could want from a tense two-hander set at an isolated Siberian weather station.
Popogrebsky's film eloquently typifies Russian cinema's current frame of mind.
It's the complex performances that keep the simple narrative compelling, with Puskepalis, in the less showy role, conveying a quiet threat that racks up the tension during the unpredictable final third.
An atmospheric, beautifully photographed but ultimately rather pointless existential Russian drama about two contrasting men stuck together on a deserted Arctic island to record meteorological data.
Part psychological thriller, part a paean to the beauty and remoteness of its setting, How I Ended This Summer is shot by cinematographer Pavel Kostomarov with rare and atmospheric skill.
It's as though everything repressed and unconscious has become real enough to be photographed. What a terrific film.
The polar landscapes and fluctuating weather are superbly shot, while there are compelling turns from the two actors, who bravely perform their own stunts.
It's a film about temperament and time and territory, clearly shot in arduous conditions in a bleak and breathtaking landscape.
With strong turns from its leads, this Russian drama will bury its way into your subconcious. Intense.
The evocative cinematography, often showcasing the humbling scale of the landscape, perfectly counterpoints Popogrebsky's intimate, intricately observed direction.
This is slow cinema, and like slow food, the flavours are rich. A film to savour.
Audience Reviews for How I Ended This Summer
Super Reviewer
I am sure at some point that Pavel(Grigoriy Dobrygin) thought that the job would be easy enough money, requiring a few simple measurements, sleep, playing video games, sleep and listening to his iPod. Then, there is a very good reason that his older co-worker Sergei(Sergey Puskepalis) tells him about the time he held off a pack of polar bears with just a toothbrush, in that the land is unforgiving and to always be prepared. This also has a side effect of intimidating Pavel and it is not until a scene in a sauna that we realize how lanky Pavel really is underneath all of his bulky clothing. In any case, Sergei has been around long enough not only to be cautious about possible dangers but as to what he can get away with when nobody is looking. So, he takes off for a few days to go trout fishing, leaving Pavel to take the measurements with the help of 'an alarm clock that could wake the dead' and if he gets hungry there is walrus meat(but no booze?). And that's when the news arrives from the mainland.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Kak ya provyol etim letom (DE)
- How I Ended This Summer (Kak ya provyol etim letom) (UK)
