We are talking about the new series of Fyodor Bondarchuk. The main role in it was played by Konstantin Bogomolov: he plays a psychologist who himself needs help.
On November 5, on the more.tv online service, perhaps the loudest serial premiere of this fall, the dramedy Psych, directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk, starts. The conflict of fathers and children, abortion, sex in adulthood, fetishism – these are all just some of the forbidden topics that the film touches on, stepping on the sore spots of modern society.
For the creator of “Stalingrad” and “Attraction” this is the first director’s work not on a full-length, but on a multi-part project: “Psycho” has 8 episodes of 58 minutes each. Each episode is almost a full meter, but the story is linear, and the main plot intrigue develops from episode to episode.
The main character, a middle-aged man named Oleg, grew up in an incomplete family – he was raised by an imperious mother, who was burdened by her life, her son and her gender. A classic story plays out on the screen: the parents did not teach the child the most important skill – to love, and this turns into suffering for him. Both Oleg and other heroes really want to love and be loved, but they do not know how. Instead, they engage in self-digging, amenable to self-destruction.
At the same time, Oleg is a well-known psychologist. As a specialist, he understands everything about himself, but as a person he “scores” on the problems and challenges of life, in which various psychoactive substances help him perfectly.
Bogomolov created a voluminous hero, whose calling card is an impassive face and an eloquent look. Oleg knows how to look in such a way that the interlocutor becomes awkward, uncomfortable and even ashamed.
Another characteristic feature is obsession with cleanliness. Oleg constantly wipes his hands, steering wheel and other items with antiseptics or wet wipes. An attentive viewer will remember that a maniac from Lars Von Trier’s film “The House That Jack Built” had a similar habit. This bright detail hints at the confusion and difficult state of the psychologist: he himself needs professional help.
Everything that the generation that grew up at the turn of the ages lives and suffers from has found its place in the plot of “Psycho”
The tragedy of Oleg is that he lost his wife. It is not known how, because a year ago she went missing, and the investigation reached a dead end, although Oleg is still considered the main suspect. But no body, no murder charge. Personal drama, as well as the presence of problems, does not prevent him from continuing his professional activities, taking patients.
The viewer is presented with a whole gallery of images from the generation of modern Muscovites aged 40+, more precisely, the advanced wealthy stratum of the capital’s society. In the series, we will see a real constellation of leading Russian actors: Anna Chipovskaya, Oleg Menshikov, Marina Alexandrova, Elena Lyadova and many others, not to mention the leading actor – the star of the modern theater Konstantin Bogomolov.
Watching “Psycho” is much more exciting than most Russian serial novelties with detective or mystical plots: the characters are so recognizable and alive that Dostoevsky’s words come to mind: “Man is the biggest mystery, and it’s not a pity to spend your life solving it.” Everything that the generation that grew up at the turn of the era lives and suffers from has found its place in the plot of “Psycho”.
At the same time, the series is also aesthetic. The dark colors of the locations are diluted either with a bright helmet in which Oleg rides around on his scooter, or with sunbeams on the boulevard … The main character always sees the face of his missing wife in front of him, and it seems to become for him an allegory of the very love that constantly eludes him .
In a gray city with skyscrapers, lofts and drafts, there is so little warmth that for the sake of a ghost of tenderness, each of us is ready for endless self-deception, well, or for a trip to a fashionable psychologist who, perhaps, will tell us what to do with ourselves and our lives, give us the illusion of participation. No wonder all Oleg’s clients consider him more of a friend than a doctor. After all, he really has to heal himself in this abnormal world among normal abnormal people.
However, not only ordinary, but also client-therapeutic relationships work this way: by helping another, we invisibly help ourselves. Will Oleg succeed? We’ll see!