Leto

2018 [RUSSIAN]

Biography / Drama / History / Music / Romance

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 79% · 59 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79%
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 8440 8.4K

love triangle soviet union st. petersburg, russia rock music summer rock band

Plot summary

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LPs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoï. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

Director

Kirill Serebrennikov Photo
Kirill Serebrennikov

Top cast

Irina Starshenbaum Photo
Irina Starshenbaum as Natasha
Teo Yoo Photo
Teo Yoo as Viktor
Yuliya Aug Photo
Yuliya Aug as Tatiana
Aleksandr Kuznetsov Photo
Aleksandr Kuznetsov as Skeptic
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.15 GB
1280*480
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   nl   fr   de   pt   es   tr  
24 fps
2 hr 8 min
Seeds 2
2.14 GB
1920*720
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   nl   fr   de   pt   es   tr  
24 fps
2 hr 8 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by LUIS 7 / 10

Rock culture of the last phase of the Soviet Union.

Portrait of the naive and censored rock culture of the last phase of the Soviet Union.
Reviewed by guy-bellinger 8 / 10

The wind of Summer blows in frozen USSR.

The place is Leningrad, shortly before Perestroika. Lou Reed and David Bowie's records are circulating covertly while a local rock scene emerges. Mike and his wife, the beautiful Natasha, meet the young Viktor Tsoi. Surrounded by a new generation of musicians, they will change the course of rock'n'roll in the USSR.Leto, that's what they call summer in Russian. And in fact, a very pleasant summer breeze blows in this film, bearing a scent of freedom. Freedom to listen to and play the music you choose, rock in this instance - and its even more demanding variation, punk. An energetic and energizing way to try and melt the ice pack that was then freezing the dying USSR. « Music above all else », as Verlaine said, is the creed of Serebrennikov, which does not mean he neglects the form, quite the contrary. Very personal, full of contrasts, inventive, the way he presents things changes according to the variations of tones, measured one moment, light and airy the next. Without any constraint, the director mixes black and white and color, realism and fantasy, gravity and futility, real and animated views, dramatic and comic scenes. Nothing stops the director, who keeps experimenting - and in all possible fields, including musicals: the sequences danced to cult tracks such as "Passenger", "Perfect Day" or "Psycho Killer" are astonishing. On the funny side, memorable are the concert scenes given by local rockers in front of whom fans are ordered, under penalty of punishment, to remain screwed to their chairs without moving, applauding or shouting. Kafkaesque but authentic! The whole thing, which could give the impression of a regular mishmash, is fortunately cemented by a central story, that of the passion, both sentimental and creative, of a love triangle. Three excellent performers have the knack to make the threesome close to us and touching. "Leto" is the product of free artists. Maybe « too » free. Wasn't his director put under house arrest at the end of filming? Well, whether his tormentors like it or not, the « renegade » director has achieved his end: making us discover - and love - gifted Russian outcasts we hadn't heard much about until now.
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