Morphia

Sickbags at the ready for Balabanov’s (‘Cargo 200’, ‘Of Freaks and Men’) deliciously funny and graphically gory take on Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘Notes Of A Young Doctor’ as he juxtaposes the worsening morphine addiction of a bookish young medic in his backwoods hospital with the 1917 Bolshevik revolution which rages in the neighbouring cities. Divided into short episodes all with laugh-out-loud titles (The First Injection, The First Amputation, etc.) which comically hint at the ensuing carnage, the film offers a vision of humanity bent on self-destruction and where the social pillars of religion, politics, media and medicine are all irredeemably corrupt. The exhaustive production design deserves special mention.