Serko
Seville
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Synopsis:
At the beginning of winter in 1889, mounted on Serko, his small, grey horse, Dimitri leaves the Amour river, situated on the eastern borders of the Russian Empire, and sets out on a journey. After extraordinary adventures, they both arrive in Saint Petersburg, at the Tsar’s court. Having covered 5,600 miles in less than 200 days, this young horseman and his horse have thus achieved the most amazing equestrian feat of all time.
I realized something about fairy tales watching Serko: the main characters are all annoying. For example, take “The Three Pigs”. The first two deserved to be bacon. Red Riding Hood can’t even recognize her own grandmother. Snow White takes food from a stranger. And don’t get me started on the hooky-loving, hedonistic Pinocchio.
The film opens with a puppet show, telling a legend. This sets the film up as a fairy tale itself. With what followed I had my revelation. The story follows a young man as he travels thousands of miles to speak to the Tsar. It’s a noble quest but one most would think would have been at best futile and at worst deadly. With his strong spirit Dimitri is not fazed. As a common lad, he is therefore constructed as an underdog seeing as he has little legitimate shot at finding success. Now while I’m not saying all underdogs have to look like they just rolled out of bed, Dimitri’s look is more akin to that of a Hollywood movie star. It makes it hard to buy him as someone who shouldn’t succeed because the films we’re fed here always seem to end with the handsome guy winning. Although the simple act of casting may seem small, especially when the actor in question does a fine job, but I found it just didn’t work.
That said, Serko is a gorgeous film that highlights the desolate landscape of the Asian tundra. The exterior shots do an excellent job of showing what Dimitri is up against. Fairy tales usually also have a bit of magic to them. To me, there’s little that’s more magical than the sun shining through a group of sky-reaching trees that are blanketed by snow.
Video: How's it look?
As stated above, the look of Serko is amazing, almost magical. The film is shown in widescreen format with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. I could not find any glaring flaws with its look.
Audio: How's it sound?
The film’s audio is in a great French/Russian Dolby 5.1 Surround. There’s also a 2.0 stereo track. English subtitles are also included.
Extras: What additional goodies are included?
Closing Thoughts
Story wise, Serko is simply all right. It’s not great and terribly miscast as far as the lead goes. But the cinematography is very nice and adds to the overall package. The DVD package, however, is very light with a trailer acting as the only bonus feature (if a trailer can be called that).
Review brought to you by our friend Ryan @ Movie-Views.com
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