DUSKA (Jos Stelling). 112 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (April 10). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: N
You know how some movies just don’t travel? Duska is one of those – a Danish-Russian co-production so idiosyncratic that it arrives over here like a locked strongbox. Whatever’s inside, you can’t get to it.
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This isn’t an issue of translation. There’s hardly any dialogue in Jos Stelling’s exhausting comedy of manners about a middle-aged Amsterdam film critic named Bob (Gene Bervoets) whose longing for the comely ticket-booth girl (Sylvia Hoeks) at the rep cinema across the street is hampered by the arrival of the eponymous stranger (Sergei Makovetsky) who hugs Bob like an old friend, plops himself down on his couch and politely but firmly refuses to leave.
Wackiness decidedly does not ensue, as Stelling drags out every scene to excruciating lengths – including an endless flashback to a Russian film festival – before finally just giving up and going home. I suggest you keep one step ahead of him and not even go out in the first place.
