Rhino

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, only the strongest survive. ›Rhino‹ portrays an anti-hero of organised crime who pays the price of a violent life.

A boy pummels sunflowers, then the neighbourhood children pummel him. In the 1990s, Ukraine devolves into aimless violence. Fathers go to jail and eventually die; brothers go to war and eventually die as well. Director Oleg Sentsov protested against the Russian annexation of Crimea and spent five years in a prison camp. Prior to that, he’d finished the script for ›Rhino‹; now he’s been able to complete the film. Vova owes his nickname, from which the film’s title is derived, to the bump on his head which others gave him. But bumps are just the beginning. Rhino rises through the ranks of an underworld organised around mindless thugs. Blood flows – lots of blood. And at the end – or the beginning? – of it all, Rhino sits in a car and tells a man the story of his life. His chance at redemption, however, is on a knife-edge.

Director