Daddy, Father Frost is Dead (1992, Yevgeny Yufit)

Can't say I really dug "Daddy, Father Frost is Dead" (a.k.a. "Daddy, Santa Claus is Dead") mainly because I just didn't "get" it and it was WAY to slow. It's a Russian 'arthouse' flick that begins with a guy down in some flooded tunnel or sewer who trips and falls into a strategically placed wire noose. A guy and a small boy show up to steal the guy's shit and remove his clothes for some reason. We then cut to a guy who is on his way to meet his cousin. On the way, he frees a woman whom he finds tied up and wrapped in gauze and left by a group of weirdos. He makes it to Cuz's house and meets his oddball family who like to sit around with blank expressions on their faces. There's randoms scenes with a group of people standing around a field... A kid dies and they stuff the little coffin in a wood pile where an old man with a rifle is sleeping... Then the visitor gets roughed up by the group of weirdos who were standing around earlier and the movie pretty much ends on that note...

Not sure what to make of it. All it is, is a mess of random scenes that make up what you would generally perceive as the "artsy" film archetype. No apparent rhyme or reason behind any of it. Weirdness for the sake of weirdness, which is typically fine by me in many cases, although this one just moves along SO goddamn slow! Numerous scenes of people sitting around in silence, staring off into space... Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with this 'experimental' flick...