Okarina Blues

Okarina Blues is an Osorrai black comedy from 2017 detailing a romance between single mother Tatanya, ambitious Yarovar expat Alexander, and her rowdy criminal son. The film follows him going from his failed life in Yarova and his journey into the Yakuza. The film received an extremely high positive rating by both audiences and critics alike and made over 100 million in the box office. The film despite its satirical comedic tone was called “one of the best depictions of modern Okarina in Osorrai film.

The film was directed by Lyosha Kiselev and funded by stream.os and the Okarina Provincial Government. Lyosha was given an unprecedented deal of creative control over the film and in fact was not required to prescreen it before his backers. The film debuted at the 2017 Okarina Film Festival.

The cinematography of the film is more “somber” and is slower paced with less cuts than Kiselev’s other films. This serious backdrop adds a layer of irony to the generally ridiculous events of the story and the unrealistic characters. The characters are perhaps seen as “inane displays of self centered narcissism with very little depth or emotional control “. In an interview Lyosha commented “I feel like psychologically deep film is overdone. Okarina is a bacchanal, does it need one to represent it?”

Plot
The film begins detailing the life of Alexander - a poor dropout in Yarova. Burdened with bachelorhood, a poorly paying job, and high taxes - he soon leaves to find work in the burgeoning fracking industry of Okarina. Alone, he travels around the state looking for work. He goes from interview and interview getting constantly rejected. He soon meets Tatanya in a bar who he soon woos and uses to support him.

Alexander soon discovers Tatanya has an uncle with a great inheritance and plots with her son to murder him. He comments “Son, your previous fathers have been abusive do nothing drunkards. On first impression, you can comment I’m the same. Believe what you want, but I’m different. You and your mother will see great riches - but you have to listen to me “.

He first his to convince her son's gang - Osya Bratya - to engage in the killing. Alexander mulls around before deciding to fake an accident and burden it on the uncle. He soon travels to a remote fracking site and engages in a few "pranks" when the uncle was there. Afterwards the gang attempts to murder him, is stopped by the Akitei Yakuza, there is a fight scene, and Alexander is taken by the Yakuza. He sits in a dingy abandoned parking lot. A Yakuza comes up to him and congratulates him for his cunning scheme, and offers to split the inheritance. The film ends with them in a Zalivkov penthouse celebrating the New Year.