House of Fools (film)
| House of Fools | |
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| Directed by | Andrei Konchalovsky |
| Produced by | Felix Kleiman Andrei Konchalovsky |
| Written by | Andrei Konchalovsky |
| Starring |
Julia Visotskaya Sultan Islamov Yevgeni Mironov |
| Music by | Eduard Artemyev |
| Cinematography | Sergei Kozlov |
| Distributed by | Paramount Vantage |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian, Chechen |
House of Fools (Russian: Дом дураков, Dom durakov) is a 2002 Russian film by Andrei Konchalovsky about psychiatric patients and combatants during the First Chechen War. It stars Julia Vysotskaya and Sultan Islamov and features a number of cameo appearances by Bryan Adams, with the music composed by Eduard Artemyev.
Distinctly anti-war, unbiased and controversial in Russia, House of Fools is a bizarre blend of black comedy, touching drama, horrific warfare and subtly disturbing psychological content.
The film tells the story of a psychiatric hospital in the Russian republic of Ingushetia on the border with war-torn republic of Chechnya in 1996. With the medical staff vanishing to apparently find help, the patients are left to their own endeavors. Zhanna (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a young woman, lives in the belief that the pop star Bryan Adams is her fiancé, that he is off on tour and will, at some point in the future, come to take her away with him. Zhanna is sort of the ad hoc keeper of peace, happiness and control of the others; she attempts to help curb some of the other patients exuberant impulses. Blissfully unaware of the terror of the war, the patients stick it out in the hospital. Their guests include a group of Chechen rebels, one of whom, Ahmed (Sultan Islamov), gives Zhanna the idea that he will marry her. At this point Zhanna falls in love with Ahmed. She goes back to the "House" where, with the help of her fellow residents, she prepares for her marriage to Ahmed. From this point on Zhanna prepares for and expects to be swept away by Ahmed. Her hopes do not come to fruition and Ahmed and Zhanna part ways. Zhanna returns to the "House" in order to resume her life there.
The story was partially inspired by the real-life tragedy of the psychiatric hospital in Shali, Chechnya, which was abandoned by the personnel during the Russian bombing campaign and in which many patients subsequently died from attacks and neglect.
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