The Suit (2003 film)

The Suit (Russian: Шик) is a 2003 film by Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov with collaboration from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France. The film script is written by Oleg Antonov and is a free adaption of Ray Bradbury's 1958 short story The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.

Plot summary
Three youngster living in a small coastal town at the Black Sea spend their time roving about. Some day they discover a black pinstriped Gucci suit in the window of a fashion shop in the big city, where they have to go by ferry. They plan to obtain this specific suit in order to appear as successful and confident adults once they wear it. After a couple of efforts, they manage to acquire the suit and agree to take turns wearing it.

Shtyr puts the suit on to upgrade his image. Wearing the suit, he easily creeps into the champagne reception of a luxury cruise ship, and later he tries to have a talk with his father, who left the family long ago and works as a sophisticated tailor in town.

Geka wears the suit hoping to gain respect from his step mother Asya, who apparently is cheating his father by dating other guys. On the one hand he detests Asya for her more or less obvious sluttishness, on the other hand he appears to be attracted by her.

Mute uses the suit to impress Dina, a beautiful jewish fishmonger he became fond of, but is only used by her in order to get rid of a bothersome man named Artur.

The efforts of all three juveniles wearing the suit end in tragedy.

Filming location
The Suit was shot in the Crimea in the cities of Sevastopol and Jalta and the surrounding areas. The opening scene takes place in the cave fortress of Inkerman.

Cast

 * Ivan Kokorin as Mute
 * Aleksandr Yatsenko as Shtyr
 * Artur Smolyaninov as Geka
 * Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė as Asya
 * Ruslana Rukhadze as Dina
 * Andrei Panin as Platon (Shtyr's father)
 * Elena Drobysheva as Shtyr's mother
 * Nikolai Fomenko as Botya
 * Inna Sukharev as Mona Lisa (Botya's playmate)
 * Aleksandr Donskoy as Edik

Release
The premiere of  Shik  was on February 9, 2003 at the Berlinale Talents in Germany. In Russia, the film was first shown on 23 July 2003 at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Awards

 * 2002 Sochi Grand Prize (Best Russian Film)
 * 2003 Tokyo Special Jury Prize: Best Artistic Contribution