Best in Hell (Russian: Лучшие в аду) is a 2022 Russian war film and action film directed by Andrey Batov. The premiere in Russia took place on October 5, 2022.[1] Yevgeny Prigozhin is also named among the creators of the film.[2]

Best in Hell
Directed byAndrey Batov
Written byAnton Zimin Aleksey Nagin
Produced by
  • Sergey Shcheglov
  • Irina Zaitseva
  • Alexander Koldakov
  • Heinrich Ken
  • Evgeny Prigozhin
Music byVitaly Mukanyayev
Distributed byAurum Production
Release date
  • October 5, 2022 (2022-10-05)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian

Plot

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The units of "whites" carry out an assault operation to capture several buildings; their task is to occupy an observation post and direct attack aircraft to targets behind enemy lines. They are opposed by the “yellow” units, who have dug in in these buildings and are also ready to fight to the end.

The nationality of the “whites” and “yellows”, the year and place of the battle are not indicated in the film, however, it is assumed that the “whites” represent Wagner PMC, and the “yellows”, apparently, are fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Cast

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  • Aleksei Kravchenko as "Shopot"
  • Dmitry Murashev as "Buran", Commander of the Yellows
  • Georgy Marishin as "Rang", machine gunner of the Yellows
  • Anton Bagmet as "Ruchey", chief of the Yellow artillery
  • Vladislav Demin as "Mramor", chief of Staff of the Whites
  • Mikhail Bogdanov as “Shama”, machine gunner of the Whites
  • Andrey Papanin as “Abricos”, commander of the White Artillery Battery
  • Zakhar Tcherezov as “Simon”, commander of the Yellow reserve group
  • Sergei Bespalov as "Lokomotiv", tank commander of the Whites

Reaction

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Rossiyskaya Gazeta: the movie depicts “hard combat work without embellishment, reflection and lyrical digressions. For an hour and a half, equal, tactically savvy, uncompromising and generally similar opponents confront each other to the death - with the important amendment that the former have a contract with the Motherland and Conscience, and the latter, unfortunately, took the side of the enemy. The realism here is perhaps unprecedented: besides everything else, “Best in Hell” needs to be seen if only to understand how much physical and mental super-effort, how much shed blood and sweat a modern armed conflict requires - even when it comes to execution of some ordinary local problem"[3]

The TV Rain channel gave the film a positive assessment, calling it “a rough, but still anti-war statement.” Thus, Alexey Korostelev noted “something Tarantino-esque” in the director’s work, assessed the role of Kravchenko and summed up: “No one will win in this massacre except Death, and one of the main “hawks” of the Russian government, Putin’s cook, told us about this... Evgeny Prigozhin"[4]

References

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  1. ^ "«Лучшие в аду»: в Петербурге впервые показали боевик Евгения Пригожина". bel.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  2. ^ "Одни и те же люди с обеих сторон: почему фильм Евгения Пригожина про ЧВК «Вагнер» оказался мощным антивоенным высказыванием". ФОНТАНКА.ру - новости Санкт-Петербурга (in Russian). 2022-10-05. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  3. ^ "Киноитоги недели: "Сердце пармы", "Лучшие в аду" и крутые русские сериалы". Российская газета (in Russian). 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  4. ^ «Лучшие в аду» Пригожина о работе ЧВК «Вагнера» в Украине: как герои боевика воевали сами с собой. Retrieved 2024-04-21 – via www.youtube.com.
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