Contact (1992)

directed by Albert S. Mkrtchyan
Russia
92 minutes
3 stars out of 5
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I'd be lying if I said half the reason I watched this wasn't because its original Russian title, Prikosnoveniye, is one of my favorite Russian words (as someone who knows few Russian words). But it has appeal outside of that as well- the Grim Reaper-type skull on the poster art also had me interested in what this movie had going on. Which turned out to not be nearly as much as the poster would have you believe.

In the beginning it's a very standard crime movie where a chill cop investigates a murder-suicide because there's something stranger behind it. Unfortunately for the viewer this means there's a lengthy stretch of set-up where nothing is interesting and we have to watch a fictionalized idea of a cop go about his job. But fortunately, the boredom helps when the supernatural elements start to come in, because if you've been lulled into a trance by the lack of action, the gradual addition of the paranormal can give the whole film an almost phantasmagorical vibe, as if there was never any question that ghosts and other shades exist, and accepting their growing influence on the world is not a difficult thing to do.

I'm surprised at how similar this plot is to the movie Kairo. It seems to be implied that if the protagonist in Contact is experiencing these things, it means the rest of the world is next, which felt quite close to the weird global paranormal plague going on in Kairo. And the aims of the ghosts in both movies are similar enough that I have trouble believing Kiyoshi Kurosawa wasn't at least aware of Contact before making Kairo. But Kairo also has that component of internet-induced isolation that was a little bit after Contact's time, and in an entirely different context.

This movie also doesn't have the feel of being "just" a ghost story. It's possible to see it as a reflection on class systems in society. I'm not entirely sure how the fact that this came out shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union plays into that interpretation of it. But there's a lot of things that describe a place or a system that is only open to certain people- only the intelligent, strong, useful people get in, and people who are supposedly dumb, violent, brutish nobodies are left behind, with no chance of ever accessing it. It's implied that the world available to the "higher" individuals is so incredibly beautiful and meaningful that it makes normal human life seem like a disease in comparison, and- most importantly- people are killing themselves to get a chance to live that good life. What I'm saying is: that sure sounds to me like an analogy for capitalism and the myth that amassing more money will somehow make your life worth living.