There are strains of Gogol and Kafka in this intriguing if flawed movie from Russian director Ivan I Tverdovskiy, shot in a restless handheld style, the camera roaming and panning across a dreary workaday world. It all makes his sudden money shot all the more striking: the sight of a certain anatomical abnormality.
Our careworn heroine is Natasha (Natalya Pavlenkova), who works in a zoo. Natasha’s only pleasure is wandering there after-hours, feeding the animals herself with strictly forbidden fruit and buns. One afternoon, she faints, apparently as a result of a fusion of midlife crisis and animal-empathy epiphany; when she awakes she is growing a tail, which triggers a new youthful sensuality and a relationship with the handsome young doctor Petya (Dmitriy Groshev) treating her.
It is a fable of Russian conformity, reactionary sexual politics and populist religious fervour: Natasha herself overhears people gossiping everywhere about rumours concerning a satanic woman with a tail. Her own private life takes a turn that reminded me of Amat Escalante’s recent bizarre film The Untamed. The film’s narrative drive begins to slow as Natasha’s relationship with Petya becomes directionless and the drama’s satirical promise isn’t entirely fulfilled. A spark of animal vitality nonetheless.
