A Gentle Creature

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A Gentle Creature

2017

2h 23m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

74%

Tomatometer

34 Reviews

60%

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."

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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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

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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

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Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

A Gentle Creature has a warped, nightmarish-like feel anyway.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 11, 2018

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Audience Member

So grim. Hard to watch.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

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Sergei Loznitsa

Director

Vasilina Makovtseva

Une femme douce

Marina Kleshcheva

La compatissante

Liya Akhedzhakova

La militante des droits de l'Homme

Valeriu Andriuță

Visage bleu

Boris Kamorzin

L'homme au bras dans le plâtre

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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: Slot Machine, Wild at Art, Arte France Cinema, Graniet Film BV, Solar Media Entertainment, Looks Film + TV, Studio Uljana Kim
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Russian
Runtime: 2h 23m