Nails DVD Review

After returning home from a hard day's work, the hit man (Alexander Shevchenko), tries to shake off another of the headaches that he's plagued with, and memories of those he's dispatched. He sees an article about a man who, after his death, was found to have lived with a large amount of metal in his head. So, he hammers a large nail into his skull. This seems to do the trick, he begins to feel much better, for a while. An unexpected side effect of his auto-trepanation is an increased perception, the ability to see the true essence of things.

Visions of his gainful assassinations still haunt him, so he takes the next logical step and reaches for his electric drill. Now he sees things very clearly. His girlfriend (Irina Nikitina), who shares the same profession, thinks he’s acting very strange, but he can now see her as she really is. There remains but one thing left for him to do to completely stop his terrible visions...

It’s very difficult for me to talk about Nails objectively as I’m such a big fan of Andrey Iskanov’s work, but it makes a change for me to be partisan about a subject other than British films I suppose. Nails is a very simple tale on the surface and is more accessible than Andrey’s subsequent work; Visions of Suffering. Set almost entirely in one apartment, the film has a very claustrophobic atmosphere, which emphasises the suffering of the main character. Alexander Shevchenko is superb as the tortured assassin, who despite his murderous vocation, one can empathise with. He has the unenviable task of portraying the principle role with very little dialogue, relying on Andrey’s excellent direction and his own considerable acting talent. Not a straight horror film by any means, Nails has some fantastic, incongruous imagery and unsettling, dissonant sound effects that are Andrey’s signatures and are used to great effect in his later films.

I’m not going to compare Andrey Iskanov to other directors, because he’s unique. Sure, there are surrealist film makers who are practically household names, and I’m sure that when the reviews start rolling in, when Nails is finally released, comparisons will be drawn. Figuratively and literally speaking, Andrey comes from another place. His films are the result of a creative spirit that at this moment in time, is only restrained by financial limitations. Nails is not perfect; it’s raw and was made on a tiny budget, but with it we are witnessing the genesis of an important talent. I believe Andrey is capable of, and will go on to create some amazing works, and I’m dying to discover what this honest and charming Russian gentleman will do next. S.J.T.

Nails 2003

Directed by Andrey Iskanov