Kamikaze Diary

The action takes place in modern Moscow. Periodically, the memories of the heroes transfer them to the early 1960s, in the last school years, to an unnamed seaside port city.

Three shots from a pistol killed the once-popular screenwriter, “living classic of the movie” Vadim Kolyvanov (Shakurov). The police investigation is complicated by the fact that a large businessman who was apparently not connected with the writer in any way was killed from the same weapon. Vadim’s childhood friend, Maxim Krivoshein (Chindyaykin), conducts his private investigation. Very soon, Kolyvanov’s diary fell into his hands, from which the drama of the last years of his life was revealed. Having problems in creativity and a developing craving for alcohol, Vadim became more and more confused in relations with his wife (Kolyakanova) and lovers Dasha (Dobrovolskaya) and Larisa (Tolstoganova). The amount of his debts grew. As it turns out, Larisa is the daughter of a recently murdered businessman who previously lent, and recently demanded, a large sum of money be returned from Kolyvanov.

From the diary, Maxim becomes aware that having no opportunity to repay the debt and in search of a way out of the impasse, Kolyvanov recalls his cousin Victor (Kuznetsov) - a man who is outwardly deeply religious, but internally tormented by passions. Day after day, revealing all new carnal joys to him, Vadim turns his brother into the killer of his creditor. However, he soon kills Kolyvanov himself. Realizing what happened from the diary and wanting to avenge his friend, Maxim searches for Victor, but is unable to shoot a mentally ill person. He almost before the eyes of Krivoshein commits suicide.

• Sergey Shakurov - Vadim Kolyvanov
• Nikolay Chindyaykin - Maxim Krivoshein
• Yuri Kuznetsov - Victor
• Victoria Tolstoganova - Larisa
• Evgenia Dobrovolskaya - Dasha
• Natalya Kolyakanova - Ekaterina
• Sergey Garmash - Pole
• Irina Rozanova - mother of Vadim

• 2002 - Special prize of the film festival “Window to Europe” to Yuri Kuznetsov for best actor.
• 2002 - Golden Aries Prize of the Guild of Film Critics and Film Critics of Russia Yuri Kuznetsov for Best Supporting Actor .
• 2003 - Constellation , Russian Actors Guild Award Evgenia Dobrovolskaya for Best Actress

Kommersant Weekend Magazine believes that “Kamikaze Diary” is a classic crime detective story that, at first glance, can be explained logically. The main object of the director’s attention is feelings, not the external attributes of the action movie. The strong trump card of the film is the cast: “from seasoned Sergey Shakurov and Sergey Garmash to a rising star, the wildly sensual Victoria Tolstoganova. The world, which in most domestic films is either monotonously young or equally monotonous, in the film acquires completeness and complexity ” ^[1] .

Yuri Bogomolov, an observer for Izvestia , on the whole giving a positive assessment to the film, retells his plot in his own way: “Once upon a time there used to be a successful screenwriter. He had money and ideas. And then another life began. Money, ideas ran out, but ambitions remained. Spoiled character. When the Soviet power ended and another life began, then all the angels became devils. Sinful sin is no longer a sin; killing an old percent-old woman is not a task. On the agenda of the day and night - the killing of his mother, the killing of his brother. A Russian writer, entangled in debt, would not have been a Russian writer if he had not composed a cool detective from all this with religious background, Karamaz-Smerdyakov reflection and godless pride ” ^[2] .

Rather, a more negative assessment is given by Rossiyskaya Gazeta , which believes that the director’s distractions for formal tasks made the picture sluggish, despite the detective story. The merit is the decision of the director emphasized individually to display each time layer: “Max is investigating today - the shot is usual here. The episodes with the diary writer Vadim are given in the style of a vario-screen : the action takes place either in a square, in a horizontal slit, or even in an oval. There are still memories of youth and the betrayals made there - the frame here is unsteady and incorrect, as if a person is trying to remember and, not sure of the details, scrolls the memory film again and again ” ^[3] .

• The Kamikaze Diary on the Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema website
• Kamikaze diary on Art Pictures Group website
• " Kamikaze Diary ” on the Internet Movie Database