Firebird follows a handsome, soulful young soldier who embarks on a clandestine sexual affair with a charismatic fighter pilot on a Soviet Air Force Base at the height of 1970's Communist ru... Read allFirebird follows a handsome, soulful young soldier who embarks on a clandestine sexual affair with a charismatic fighter pilot on a Soviet Air Force Base at the height of 1970's Communist rule.Firebird follows a handsome, soulful young soldier who embarks on a clandestine sexual affair with a charismatic fighter pilot on a Soviet Air Force Base at the height of 1970's Communist rule.
- Awards
- 8 wins & 3 nominations
- Volodja
- (as Jake Thomas Henderson)
- Pilot
- (as Karl Andreas Kalmet)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBased on Sergey Fetisov's (1952-2017) memoir "A Tale About Roman" (1996).
- GoofsAt the movie's end, the film director appears behind Sergey.
- Quotes
Sergey Serebrennikov: [Reading to drama class] "Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."
[from Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov]
- ConnectionsFeatures The Last Relic (1969)
- SoundtracksBezdel'nik number 1
by Kino
It's a sleek and smooth film. Good production value, nice scenes, adequate actors... But it feels a bit too conventional, bit cliche, bit too predictable. The military base forever under a cold blue cast, rain in the emergency landing scene, the blacksea beach forever bleached under warm summer tone, the last theatre scene that looks like a cover photo of a fashion magazine with too much glamour filter... Music of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky to heighten the emotions... And lines from Shakespeare, of course.
There's nothing wrong for a film to be conventional. It's a business after all, and however wonderful a story, it has to sell first for it to be heard by the public. But I wished at times, that the production rather have cut some of those cliches, and really, I mean really went down to the depth of the emotions of the characters. Then the tragic love story would have been much more heartfelt and real.
Definitely well made and worth a watch... but not a masterpiece.
PS. I must question the choice of English language for the film. Yes, I see it's a UK-Estonian joint venture, yes, I see the main actor is English, and yes it may sell easier internationally... But having actors speaking in 'funny accent' is certainly one aspect that takes away the sense of reality from the the drama, especially because in most English speaking countries, foreign accent invariably invokes a negative connotation. I would have rather liked it in full Estonian or English with no particular accent.
- onefineday36
- Jul 24, 2021
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $144,118
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $57,380
- May 1, 2022
- Gross worldwide
- $253,583
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1