Heroes, on Viaplay

These three characters would be sufficiently absurd for a Samuel Beckett play, were it not for their grouchy attitudes. Considering how difficult these old veterans are in their dotage, imagine what they were like during the unspecified war. They don’t do much, but they sure talk a lot about it in director-screenwriter Kirill Bin’s Heroes, a Ukrainian film based on Tom Stoppard’s English translation of Gerald Sibleyras’s French play, The Wind in the Poplars, which premieres today on Viaplay.

Considering the game of telephone Sibleyras’s original play went through, it is entirely possible that much was lost, or mysteriously “found” in the translation processes. On the other hand, it is not a particularly complex play. Three elderly veterans sit and kvetch in their favorite gazebo, talking perverse comfort in their shared anti-social misanthropy.

Gustav is probably the most crotchety and sarcastic. Fernand is the youngest, but often falls victim to fainting spells. He also holds fast to the irrational fear that the head nun is out to kill him, in hopes of freeing up his birthdate for a new resident. Of the trio, Rene might be the most rational, but he is an instigator and a bit of a romantic, in unhealthy ways.

There is also a stone statue of a dog, which Gustav considers the best company in the entire retirement home—and perhaps justifiably so. Indeed, it takes a bit of acclimating to the tone and rhythm of Heroes. The cranky trio are a lot and they have no on/off switch.

If you wanted a Grumpy Old Men sequel with more existential angst, than Heroes is the answer to your prayers. Admittedly, the three principal cast-members are amusing, particularly Aleksey Vertinskiy as gleefully sardonic Gustav. Nevertheless, a little of this film goes a long way. Honestly, if you finish it in three sittings or less, then you’ll have me beat.

The very mention of Ukrainian veterans inevitably summons images of Putin’s illegal invasion. Gustav and his cronies are too old (and too silly) to fight in the current war. Yet, mindful of such realities, Bin adds an apparently unrelated modern-looking epilogue that will utterly baffle many viewers.

Despite all the adapting and translating, you can still hear echoes of Stoppard in Heroes—that is the Stoppard of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern rather than the Stoppard of Rock & Roll. It finds its acerbic voice, but it is an acquired taste. Recommended for admirers of absurdist film and theater, Heroes now streams on Viaplay.