Heat (2006 film)


Heat is a 2006 Russian teen romantic comedy loosely based on the Walking the Streets of Moscow, directed by Rezo Gigineishvili and produced by Fyodor Bondarchuk. The story centers on a group of friends and their misadventures in Moscow during a summer heat wave. Heat along with Wolfhound became one of the most expensive Russian films in 2006. Additionally, its budget was one third as compared to the advertising campaign.

Plot

After three years serving as a conscript sailor in the Russian Navy, Aleksey is discharged from the Black Sea Fleet and returns to Moscow to reunite with his girlfriend, only to discover that she has a child with another boyfriend. Dejected, he decides to have lunch at a restaurant with his best friends from high school: spoiled rich-kid Kostya, aspiring actor Artur, and hip-hop artist Timati. As they finish lunch, the hosts refuse Kostya's American dollars as payment, and no one else can pay for the meal.
Timati offers to exchange some of the dollars for Russian rubles at a nearby currency exchange, but after finding out that it is closed, he is chased by a skinhead street gang. Timati hides in Kostya's flat and encounters Deni, a con artist who swindles tourists, and who has organized an illegal house party at the flat. That night, Timati slips past the skinheads waiting outside by hiding in a suitcase and having a partygoer smuggle him away.
Artur is sent off when Timati goes missing, and he finds the same exchange to be closed. He then wanders onto a music video shoot where he is invited by the director to audition as an actor. Unfortunately, Artur boards the wrong bus and leaves with migrant workers to demolish the Rossiya Hotel, believing it is part of the shoot.
Kostya then hands over his remaining dollars to Aleksey; he also finds the exchange is closed, and is then sidetracked after rescuing Nastya, a beautiful and kind nightclub dancer who got hit by a taxi. The pair spend all night together in the city and slowly fall in love. Later, Aleksey gets into a drunken fight with Nastya's abusive ex-boyfriend, and Timati is arrested by the police after intervening.
Feeling abandoned and with all his American money taken, Kostya makes a fuss at the restaurant and is also arrested. Meanwhile, Artur finally realizes his mistake and returns to the restaurant with the exchanged money, only to find everyone gone. The next day, the four friends happily reunite at the police station, where Kostya and Timati are freed with the help of the police chief's daughter, who unwittingly photographed all their misadventures. After the friends part ways, Deni is arrested, while Aleksey and Nastya reunite and share a kiss.

Cast

  • Aleksey Chadov as Aleksey
  • Artur Smolyaninov as Artur
  • Konstantin Kryukov as Kostya
  • Timati as Timati
  • Anastasia Kochetkova as girl with camera
  • Agnia Ditkovskyte as Nastya
  • Dani Dadaev as Deni
  • Maria Kurkova as Masha
  • Ptakha as husband of Masha
  • Mikhail Vladimirov as manager of cafe
  • Irina Rahmanova as waitress
  • Igor Vernik as employee of the film studio
  • Tigran Keosayan as flower seller
  • Rezo Gigineishvili as director
  • Fyodor Bondarchuk as director
  • Tatyana Lyutaeva as Aleksey's mother

    Production

Gigineishvili and Bondarchuk used the same young cast and crew from The 9th Company for their film, set in Moscow during a hot boiling summer, which caused as the title Heat instead of the draft entitled "City Tales". Its filming took place in the shortest time period: "the script was written in ten days; pre-production took no more than two weeks; and after four months of shooting, the movie was done."

Reception

Despite the fiscal success, Heat took in $15 million in the CIS, and about $1 million in Ukraine, the film, mainly, received disapproving responses of critics for the commercial direction. According to the e-poll of Moskovskij Komsomolets, Heat was recognized as the worst Russian film of 2006.

Awards and nominations

Censorship in Ukraine

During the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Boycott Russian Films activists demanded the Ukrainian Government to ban Russian films in Ukraine after the Donetsk Airport incident with Mikhail Porechenkov. On 31 November 2014, the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema, on the proposal of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine, forbidden to display 69 Russian films and TV series with Mikhail Porechenkov, including the film Heat.

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack was released in February 2007 and included a song of, several tracks from Timati's new album Black Star and other musicians.

Track listing

  1. "Когда ты плачешь" - TOKiO 4:15
  2. "Летняя Москва" - Karina Koks 3:42
  3. "Город ночных фонарей" - Timati & 3:21
  4. "Жара" - Timati, F. Bondarchuk, NASTY 4:21
  5. "В городской суете" - Basta 3:55
  6. "Жара 77" - Centr 4:03
  7. "Детка" - Timati 4:24
  8. "Всё между нами" - 4:14
  9. "The Girl of funk" - DJ Smash 2:26
  10. "Groovin" - VIP77 4:11
  11. "Black star" - Timati 4:57
  12. "Лето" - Lomonosov 4:17
  13. "Москва" - VIP77 3:33
  14. "Жара" - DJ Smash 3:10
  15. "Where you gonna be" - VIP77 4:15
  16. "Happy New Year" - Siberia 3:23