Welcome
to Russia, semi-permanent home of the China-Putin-Zika Games, formerly known as
the Olympics. Vladimir Putin hopes you enjoy your stay, unless you happen to be
gay. In that case, you’d best not come, unless you want to risk life and limb.
Having prohibited LGBT “propaganda” and given license to his brutish supporters
to bash away, Putin has deliberately fostered a climate of fear and
intimidation. However, the uncertainty of blind hook-ups cuts both ways in
Blake Mawson’s short film Pyotr495 (trailer here), which screened
during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Pyotr
is usually careful, but he still wants to live some semblance of a life. After
exchanging a series of texts with the muscular Sergei, he agrees to meet the
stranger in his Moscow apartment. It turns out Pyotr should have done more due diligence
on Sergei—and he really should not have admitted nobody knew he was there.
Unfortunately, Sergei and his gay-bashing friends have their own humiliating
plans for Pyotr. However, there is more to their intended victim than they realize.
After all, it wasn’t programmed at Fantasia for nothing.
Pyotr495 is an
extraordinarily dark and tense short that portrays Putin’s Russia as a horror
film in the style of the Hostel franchise,
until it takes a satisfying EC Comics turn. Alex Ozerov was rather
underwhelming in the generally problematic Natasha,
but he redeems himself as Pyotr. As his tormentors, Max Rositsan and Juliana
Semenova truly personify the dark side of human nature. Technically, Putin
never appears in Pyotr495, but he
still deserves credit for making it frighteningly believable.
This is the sort of short that can transcend
resistance to its format and generate some far-ranging discussions. Of course,
it is not just LGBT Russians who are at risk from the Putin regime. The film
duly notes in its opening titles, the Russia military has invaded the sovereign
territory of Ukraine. Tightly executed and all too timely, Pyotr495 was easily one of the best shorts at this year’s Fantasia.
