Lie to Me the Truth movie storyline. A nameless, attractive couple (Darya Melnikova and Yevgeny Romantsov) spend a romantic break together in a beautiful, remote house. The two are infatuated with each other, can hardly keep their hands off each other and pass the time with role-playing games, alcohol and fine food.
But the mood changes when the woman’s younger sister (Yelizaveta Kononova) suddenly shows up – she too wants to enjoy the summer in the family’s holiday home. But the sisters have a complicated relationship and cause tension in the holiday idyll. When the younger sister brings along an old acquaintance (Pawel Prilutschny), the complex construct is finally thrown out of balance. A dramatic game unfolds full of sexual tension, a lurking past and at least one unexpected twist.
Anticipation is the most beautiful joy
The Russian drama knows how to confuse: the logo intro is followed by a seemingly random collection of quickly cut scenes. A bird’s eye view of a car on the street, a man behind the wheel – a glass shattering on a wall. In the midst of the shards, the German film title appears in a random-looking font, like one might find in a PowerPoint presentation.
So we find ourselves in the kitchen of the beautiful holiday home and witness a heated argument. In addition to glasses, the two protagonists throw bad insults at each other – but it turns out to be a wild foreplay of their sexual act, which they carry out directly on the kitchen counter, even after promising, lustful looks.
This all seems like a not unusual exposition – and it is, if you leave out the fact that the disjointed snippets at the beginning, which incidentally seem a bit like the intro to the new Bachelor / Bachelorette season, are also the same at the end Pausing without context. But if you get to know the rest of the plot little by little, sex and its wild, forbidden properties is certainly the main theme of this typically Russian dramatic piece about attractive, bored people.
Great aesthetic in continuous loop
You feel like you’re caught in a gentle erotic film loop, like a soft porn that isn’t anything and puts sexual foreplay in the spotlight on a continuous loop. The many overly stylish outfits give the whole thing a photo shoot vibe and you would know – with the protagonist’s dyed platinum blonde hair and the hard, macho-masculine facial features of the newcomer – even without Russian opening credits, which country this film comes from.
Admittedly, the otherwise familiar oligarchic-golden charm has given way to a more modern aesthetic with cool, petrol blue colors and tasteful, fashionable clothes – but the crystal glasses and fancy silver table settings still reflect the traditional need to stand out from the plebs in a certain way.
This description may not seem too appealing, but it is the aesthetics that are particularly convincing in this film. The outdoor shots in the forest, shimmering in the sunlight and with a slight depth of field, create an atmospheric fever dream that captivates viewers and spectators alike in its sex-driven spell.
Lead actress Darya Melnikova dances through the forest to the music in an airy summer dress as if she were on an acid trip – that can seem sexy, but if you take into account the wild strawberries collected by her sister, which slowly lose their color in her wine glasses, the assumption is correct a beginning fox tapeworm lolling to the music thoughtfully.
I’m going to bed now
The actors’ good chemistry is also remarkable; you really buy their desire for each other. In this respect, one could also assume that this film is a work by Terrence Malik: captivating aesthetics, credible and talented actors and dense, dramatic sound design – and to name yet another similarity; an unfortunately weak, feverishly weak script with no story.
The strong sound design is really convincing and extremely gripping, but it leads viewers to assume there is more of a thriller here than there really is. The soundtrack is great, but it feels like it was written for another film – one with more suspense, real drama and shocking tragedy with slight traces of horror.
The story can also be wonderfully summarized with this recurring action of the beautiful, platinum-blonde lead lady: You learn interesting, perhaps disturbing details, new insights that could perhaps provide an extended build-up of tension outside of sexually motivated dramas, and you are already curious reached the television screen – then the lady announced: “I’m going to bed now”. Her favorite saying, which she presents several times completely without context and the dramaturgy, which is not developed further after she goes to bed – is also bedtime.
Lie to Me the Truth (2021)
Sovri mne Pravdu
Directed by: Olga Akatieva
Starring: Evgeniy Romantsov, Darya Melnikova, Elizaveta Kononova, Pavel Priluchnyy, Aleksandr Oblasov, Grigoriy Vernik
Screenplay by: Elena Gudkova, Dmitriy Magonov, Viktoriya, Ostrovskaya, Nelli Vysotskaya
Production Design by: Olga Akatieva, Olga Shafranovskaya, Tatyana Trenina
Cinematography by: Anton Zenkovich
Film Editing by: Evgeniya Bakhareva, Mariya Sergeenkova
Music by: Sergey Luran
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Central Partnership (Russia), Capelight Pictures Germany)
Release Date: September 9, 2021 (Russia, Kazakhstan), Seqptember 26, 2021 (Germany)
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