Written by Peeter Rebane And Tom Prior
Directed by Peeter Rebane
Roman: "Who would've thought it? Actors and pilots getting along so well."
Sergey: "I can't imagine it any other way."
I was going to leave this movie until Pride month but something just told me to finally sit down and watch it, which I did this afternoon and I'm really glad I did. A love story under a military backstory and forbidden passion between two men and it's beautifully handled.
Based on the memoir, The Story Of Roman by Sergey Fetisov, British actor Tom Prior put on his best accent to play Sergey Serebrennikov. In this movie, Sergey was a young private in the last few weeks of his military service for the Soviet Air Force. Sergey also had aspirations to be an actor but before he could leave the Air Force, a certain someone came into his life.
The certain someone in question being his superior officer, Roman Matvejev (Oleg Zagorodnni) and it's not long before both Sergey and Roman find a common ground in photography, theatre and a mutual attraction towards one another, initiated by Roman himself and as quickly reciprocated by Sergey. The two of them fall madly in love with one another, but their relationship became fraught with risk of imprisonment for Roman, due to an overzealous commanding officer desperate to out the couple.
As the movie progressed, Sergey had left the Air Force and had gone to Moscow to try his hand at acting while Roman had married base secretary Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) and fathered a child with her. However despite trying to distance himself from Sergey, Roman found himself heading to Moscow in order to reignite their relationship.
It's from here where things had gotten far more complicated with the pair.At first, Sergey wasn't keen on getting back with Roman but when they did reunite, we saw them effectively living as a couple with vacations. On top of that, we also Sergey revealing a dark secret about a childhood friend of his that certainly provided some context to earlier scenes in the movie.
Sergey also wanted more than Roman was willing to give and a party soon saw the pair's relationship being outed by a former friend of Sergey. This resulted in Roman's marriage to Luisa predictably falling apart with the former also heading on a mission to Afghanistan with tragic results.
The fallout of Roman's death saw both Sergey and Luisa forced to confront the truth about the man they both loved and lost with an equal amount of sympathy being given to both of them for their loss. The final scene with Sergey at a production of The Firebird ended the movie on something of a bittersweet but heartfelt note.
- Tom Prior who played Sergey, co-wrote and co-produced the movie with director Peeter Rabane. The director also has a brief appearance onscreen at the end of the movie.
- We see Sergey in a production of Hamlet after he left the Air Force. He referenced Shakespeare a bit.
- Standout music: Boney M's Rasputin as well as Kino's Bezdel'nik number 1 and The Seasons by Tchaikovsky.
- Chronology: From 1977 into the 1980s for this movie.
Firebird is a beautiful love story, loving brought to life by director Peeter Rabane, as well as both Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodnni, both of whom give compelling performances as Sergey and Roman alike, with excellent chemistry and some lovely romantic scenes together. The story might take a tragic turn but this was definitely a worthwhile film to watch. Highly recommended.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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