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Firebird

Country: Estonia | UK, Language: English, 107 mins

  • Director: Peeter Rebane
  • Writer: Peeter Rebane; Tom Prior
  • Producer: Peeter Rebane; Brigita Rozenbrika

CGiii Comment

A most handsome film, it certainly is...alas, it's all style with a disappointing amount of substance. It's all just a bit too squeaky clean.

Homosexuality in the military is a subject that has cropped up sporadically throughout the years...most recently, with two rather splendid examples are the South Africa produced: Moffie and Canary. Threat, menace, risk, danger, dread, tension, thrill, joy and excitement - these are the ingredients necessary for a gripping military-based, cat-and-mouse, homo-sex drama.

Tension is a dramatic resource that Firebird failed to tap...the potential was all over the place - but, whenever these two young bucks were on the cusp of getting caught 'bucking'...they hid...behind a rock, behind a bush, in a bath-tub and that would be it...nothing that would get you onto the edge of your seat! For gawd's sake, if they were caught, they'd be shipped off to a secret Siberian gulag in next to no time for an indeterminable amount of time...where was their fear!?! Their hearts should have been in their mouths, chests beating like a frenzied King Kong.

Even the villain is not that villainous - everything seems to be resolved without too much of a fuss! Of course, it going to end in tragedy [how can it not] - instead of watching one character shed tears...wouldn't it have been preferential to have the whole audience bawling their eyes out?

It's a decent enough film...it just needed more dirt and grit, danger and dread.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Firebird is a touching love story set in the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War. Sergey, a troubled young private, is counting the days till his military service ends. His life is turned upside down when a daring fighter pilot, Roman arrives at the base. Driven by curiosity, Sergey and Roman navigate the precarious line between love and friendship as a dangerous love triangle forms between them and Luisa, the secretary to the base Commander. Sergey is forced to face his past as Roman's career is endangered and Luisa struggles to keep her family together. As the walls close in, they risk their freedom and their lives in the face of an escalating KGB investigation and the fear of the all-seeing Soviet regime. Based on a true story.

Cast & Characters

Nicholas Woodeson as Colonel Kuznetsov
Tom Prior as Sergey
Diana Pozharskaya as Luisa
Kaspar Velberg as Pilot Selenov
Henessi Schmidt as Olga
Jake Henderson as Volodja
Ester Kuntu as Masha
Sten Karpov as Duty Officer
Rasmus Kaljujärv as Pilot
Rosenberg Marek as Pilot
Oleg Zagorodnii as Roman
Markus Habakukk as Guildenstern Classmate
Märt Koik as Older Conscript
Carmen Mikiver as Army Doctor
Lauri Mäesepp as Pilot