Review: Compartment No. 6 (2021)

Compartment No. 6 (2021)
Directed by Juho Kuosmanen

After I reviewed “Anora,” I read (courtesy of S., my filmgoing buddy1) this interview in New York mag’s Vulture website with Yura Borisov, who gives a memorable performance in a featured role. Borisov is a star in Russia (claims the preface to the interview) but prior to “Anora,” his only significant role in a non-Russian film was in this 2021 movie by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen.

“Compartment No. 6” is a road movie about a young Finnish woman, Laura (Seidi Haarla), who is having an affair with an older Russian writer, Irina. The first scene, a party in Irina’s Moscow apartment, makes it clear that Irina is much less smitten with Laura than the younger Laura is with her. Perhaps to get rid of her, Irina seems to have encouraged Laura to travel to Murmansk, 1000 miles by train, to view some famous petroglyphs. On the train, Laura finds that she has to share a compartment with a man eight or ten years older, a miner named Lyokha, traveling to the same city, and played by Borisov.

The film is essentially an indie romcom; the setting, Lyokha’s complex character, and Borisov’s performance are what set it apart. As a road movie, the film is less a quest than an episodic journey marked by typical bickering between the two passengers, a relationship that softens with familiarity. When they finally reach the remote location of the petroglyphs far outside Murmansk, it’s Lyokha’s determination and tenacity that gets them there. By that time, whether Laura actually views any petroglyphs has become completely beside the point, which is the friends they made along the way — that is, each other.

Viewers who appreciated Borisov’s work in “Anora” will find some of the same virtues in his performance here: an expressive face, often communicating more in repose than in action; the ability to express complexity in an underwritten character whom the audience might prejudge as merely a roughneck; an attractive deep voice. While “Compartment No. 6” is boring at times, it contains enough amusement to keep you going. And it’s rarely dull when Borisov is on screen.

His increased profile will do little for his career in the West. Hollywood will have no idea what to do with him, probably sticking him in a featured role in an action movie, where he’ll have much less to do. In the right hands he could be a romantic leading man, but I’m not holding my breath.