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A Gentle Creature

Play trailer Poster for A Gentle Creature 2017 2h 23m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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74% Tomatometer 34 Reviews 58% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
After mailing a package to her incarcerated husband, a woman sets out on a hazardous journey when it is returned to her and labeled "return to sender."
A Gentle Creature

What to Know

Critics Consensus

A Gentle Creature isn't an easy watch, but this grim look at modern Russia's bureaucratic nightmare offers rich, thought-provoking rewards.

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Critics Reviews

View All (34) Critics Reviews
Edward Porter Times (UK) The film gives us a rich, clammy idea of Russia's horrors as we follow a woman (Vasilina Makovtseva) into a bureaucratic hell. Rated: 3/5 Apr 18, 2018 Full Review Larushka Ivan-Zadeh Metro Newspaper (UK) It's a fitfully interesting insight into a determined woman's fight for justice but, with its corruption and frustrating cycles of fruitless administration, this is best read as an allegory of Russia itself, which could hardly be more topical. Rated: 3/5 Apr 12, 2018 Full Review Geoffrey Macnab Independent (UK) A Gentle Creature has a warped, nightmarish-like feel anyway. Rated: 4/5 Apr 11, 2018 Full Review Benedict Seal Vague Visages I did appreciate A Gentle Creature’s fairytale weirdness and conviction to its oppressive tone, but Loznitsa’s film just doesn’t hold together, and the reliance on crooked fantasy softens its message. Dec 5, 2023 Full Review Zhuo-Ning Su Awards Daily Loznitsa's direction is masterful, filling the simplest scenes with details and intrigue, cutting from full-blown provincial rowdiness to something hypnotically still and suspenseful without missing a beat. Oct 16, 2019 Full Review Filipe Freitas Film Threat A Gentle Creature is an arduous watch indeed and will leave you a certain nausea that takes a while to go away. However, its mysterious ways, bolstered with a bit of psychedelic surrealism, makes it notable. Rated: 7/10 Nov 8, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (2) audience reviews
Audience Member This movie started out as compelling and even a bit tragicomic, but the longer I watched it, the fewer people I could imagine recommending it to...until we reached the end, at which point I could no longer honestly advise anyone I know to see it. But if you like your grim social commentary served up with a dash or the surreal, confusion about whether characters or plot points are metaphorical, and an apprehensive or nonexistent editing down of scene length, well, this may be appealing to you (of course, as long as you speak Russian or don't mind subtitles). I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that the trailer was misleading when we saw it a week earlier, and it wasn't until we had already bought tickets and sat in the theater that we learned the film's rating is due largely to an extended scene of sexual violence, which was actually not extremely graphic visually, but powerfully upsetting in its suggestiveness/ use of sound/ what you don't see. If all of that information has not deterred you, then you may very well enjoy this epically long descent of a film - just don't get too attached to the main character or the idea of a happy ending (or even a slightly disappointing one). The only reason I have even given it two stars is because it had some good acting (and presumably, some nonactors), cinematography, and dialogue - I've seen worse films that couldn't even say that. Well, there you go - an honest review of A Gentle Creature. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member So grim. Hard to watch. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
A Gentle Creature

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis After mailing a package to her incarcerated husband, a woman sets out on a hazardous journey when it is returned to her and labeled "return to sender."
Director
Sergei Loznitsa
Producer
Marianne Slot
Screenwriter
Sergei Loznitsa
Production Co
Graniet Film BV, Studio Uljana Kim, Slot Machine, Looks Film + TV, Solar Media Entertainment, Arte France Cinema, Wild at Art
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Russian
Runtime
2h 23m