Film Review: Firebird

Images courtesy of Rialto Distribution.

There’s something to be said about the secret gay affair movie nowadays. After the genre broke into something of its own after Brokeback Mountain, which told the tale of two rugged men sharing an undeniable connection, many narratives have walked similar paths on the big screen. Walking into Firebird I was expecting something I’d seen before, and while there were certainly rhymes from the past, there was something unique to be told here. 

The bold choice of making a movie based in Cold War Russia be spoken in fluent English was not something I would endorse myself, but it did open the door for global talent like Tom Prior (Sergey) to slap on an accent and feel at home in a military base surrounded by comrades. Though I may be stepping out of my expertise here, I am not a linguist after all, I swear in the second half of the movie Prior’s accent kind of fell apart? I saw that as a question because I can’t say I know a lot of English-speaking Russians, but Sergey was sounding a little bit more like a Sam in pronunciations once the movie had settled in. I absolutely had to confirm that, yes, Tom Prior was born in Britain and not Russia, and his natural accent creeping in was undeniably distracting when I noticed it.

Besides those two little nit-picks, Firebird succeeds in presenting two male leads whose characters are more nuanced than their masculine presentation.They are macho army men, constantly on alert; but also fashionable guys, and enthusiasts of the arts. Soft-spoken military men, especially from Soviet-era Russia, naturally displace the familiar stereotype we hold of these people, which is not the only way Firebird subverts the narrative.

Making a movie based on the Russian side of the Cold War is just asking for anti-communist this, and oppressed people that, but this is completely – almost, bar one funny political zinger in the barracks – avoided for the duration of Firebird. Once the credits rolled, I was thrilled to walk out of it thinking, for once in my life, that Russia had more going on during the Cold War than just war crimes and failure. A peak behind the Iron Curtain exponentially aided in submerging myself into the story, one that relished in exploring the different ways people learn to accept themselves. Some just don’t, which leads to one of the most frustrating, yet compelling, revelations Firebird presents to its audience.

Firebird is screening in select cinemas on Tuesday, May 17th. For tickets and more info, click here.