unclenching the fists review

film by Kira Kovalenko (2021)

In the region of North Ossetia in Russia a young woman named Ada (Milana Aguzarova) lives with her family in a remote former mining town. Being the only woman in the household, Ada lives with her patriarchal father and two brothers. This dynamic soon reveals a dysfunctional family clinging together in severely unhealthy ways, with the controlling father at the center and codependency stemming from a past trauma that still haunts their daily lives.

Review by Aaron Jones | December 24, 2024

Their isolated location is, we learn, probably not by coincidence but an attempt to avoid the threats of modern living as the film alludes to the fact that Ada is a survivor of a tragic event. As we begin to understand Ada, layers of her situation are revealed, showing us a woman whose experiences go beyond mere control. She is established as a prisoner of her family, kept on a proverbial leash, including being locked inside the house where her father holds the key. The few moments where she has any sort of privacy are while walking home from work which are usually intercepted by the father sending someone to pick her up, shortening those sparse moments to less and less frequency.

Ada endures a claustrophobic existence under a watchful eye and a smothering home life that reveals a deteriorating psychological state. Kira Kovalenko crafts a superb example of a character trapped in a subjugate hold that gradually tightens around her. By the time the dichotomy of the situation begins to change, we are sympathetic to her actions, even if they seem malevolent or manipulative, because her experiences lead us to accept drastic measures that we might otherwise condemn as a means to obtain freedom.

After watching this film and learning more about it, I looked back and discovered another layer that was less conspicuous during my initial viewing. This added a conflicting perspective while I was watching, giving me much more to think about and elevating my already high praise for the film. The event referred to in the film is never explicitly named. However, after watching the film, doing research, and reading reviews, I learned that it alludes to the Beslan school siege, the deadliest school shooting in history. Milana Aguzarova, who plays the character Ada, is also a survivor of the attack bringing a real life urgency to the film and these characters’ stories.

From what I understand, the event is common knowledge among Russians, but the film’s foreshadowing references to it may be lost on viewers from other parts of the world. For this reason I have included it in this review. Even if it is a light spoiler, I wish I had known this prior to my viewing. It adds so much more to the father’s and brothers’ psychology and while I did not find their actions excusable, I was sympathetic to their situation as victims of trauma in their own circumstance and their fear of losing Ada to violence in an unforeseeable future. Ironically it is their trauma that initiates this newly exhibited tragedy of a family living in fear where Ada is once again victim.

Author

Reviewed and published by Aaron Jones. Based in California, he developed a passion for film from a young age and has since viewed over 10,000 films. Curently serves as a film critic at CinemaWaves, he has contributed to other publications as well. Feel free to follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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