Synopsis
"The Stoker" (Кочегар, 2010) is a Russian crime drama by Alexei Balabanov, available to watch online on iFILM. St. Petersburg, mid-nineties. A retired Afghan War major spends his days shoveling coal into a giant furnace, typing a novel on an old machine and waiting for his daughter to visit.
Mikhail Skryabin plays Ivan as a man who has seen enough to stop being surprised by anything. Local kids come to watch the flames. A former army sergeant and his associates show up with things that need burning — the kind of thing that cannot be explained to a policeman. The furnace keeps running.
Balabanov's thirteenth film strips the gangster era down to its quietest and most disturbing detail: not the shootouts, but what comes after. Cold and deliberate, the way only Balabanov could make a film. Stream "The Stoker" online on iFILM.
Starring
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