Perth Festival Lotterywest Films: "Compartment No. 6" is not your average love story
First of all, Compartment no. 6, the new film by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen based on the novel of the same name, is not a love story. Not in the conventional sense anyway. There is love, but it’s a different sort than you might see depicted in your basic American romcom. Kuosmanen’s explores love found in human connection. The connection that occurs in a good conversation with a stranger, or the sharing of personal information, the recounting of a treasured memory to someone who really listens and cares. The feeling that happens when one suddenly feels not so alone in the world. In essence, Compartment No. 6, in its simple and understated way, explores what it means to really connect with another human being.
Laura (Seidi Haarla) is a fish out of water. During her stay with socialite girlfriend Irina in Moscow, Laura’s place in Irina’s world feels misjudged, her bubbly and academic friends, constituting a clique of insurmountable parts. They are intellectuals and elitists, and whilst not cruel, revel in their own vanity. But Laura is about to leave on a journey. One that she intended on taking with Irina, but was left to do solo after a last minute change of plans. It is to the famed Petroglyphs, the mysterious rock formations found on the northwest city of Murmansk, that she’s bound. Though her motives seem somewhat unclear, young Laura is determined but feels nervous and overwhelmed as well.
On this journey Laura encounters her co-passenger, Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a drunken, loutish Russian, who’s boisterous demeanour immediately repels her. Their initial interactions are punctuated by an uneasy discomfort, as Laura finds herself impossibly trapped with the Russian brute. However, as they endure each other’s company, their exchanges gradually soften. There are glances, moments of understanding, conversations at first strained but then warm and empathetic. Before long, Ljoha and Laura become hopelessly entangled in one another’s childlike sense of play, joking and messing about with each other like mischievous siblings.
Their connection isn’t black or white though as their friendship is impeded by bouts of jealousy and insecurity. Ljoha at one point feels deeply betrayed by Laura, and his pain becomes impossible for him to conceal. Similarly, Laura, after embracing Ljoha’s company, and opening up to him, is dismissed by Ljoha out of his own insecurity and inability to open up. You have to wonder how a single train ride could become such an emotional rollercoaster, but the two’s proximity throughout the film allows for their friendship to accelerate and fluctuate rapidly, their friendship feeling like a microcosm of a lifelong one.
The film is set in the mid-to-late nineties, which gives way to several details that complement the feelings of entrapment, claustrophobia, and intimacy. Post-Cold War, Russia is battling icy cold winters, perpetual greyness, and a decimated and exhausted populace. The frequent pitstops show the unforgiving nature of the terrain, and the battered city. Locals are embittered and impatient. With no social media to escape to, people are forced to endure one another’s company. The train itself is a claustrophobic den, rickety and cramped and Kuosmanen lens which stays glued to Laura like a shadow, accentuates the confinement she feels. All these details do add up to a somewhat bland and morbid visual experience and the pacing is at times sluggish, if you could call it pacing at all. But to focus on such things is to miss the point. The stuffiness, the closeness, and the unappealing outside world, all work as a perfect foil for a story about connection, where all these people want to do is escape into each other, to find warmth and comfort in another human beings smile. finding out that that’s not such a bad thing.
This is not a love film. But there is a love between Laura and Ljoha that sits somewhere between platonic and romantic. Whilst slow at times and certainly not a sight for sore eyes, Compartment no. 6, teaches an important lesson about the value of connection. The friendship that Ljoha and Laura finds feels honest and pure and ultimately stands in stark contrast to her relationship with Irina, which seems misjudged and somewhat fraudulent. In an age of constant distraction and frenzied impatience, of isolation and social distancing, Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6 reminds us of the joys and childlike abandon of true human connection.
three and a half stars
