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“The Trotsky”
February 01, 2012 19:30
The Canadian Institute in Greece, Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, Ilisia (ground floor)
Canadian Movie (113 minutes; English/French with English subtitles; 2009)
Presented by
Athens Association of Friends of the Canadian Institute in Greece
Leon Bronstein is not your average Montreal West high school student. For one thing, none of his peers can claim to be the reincarnation of early 20th century Soviet iconoclast and Red Army hero, Leon Trotsky. When his father sends Leon to public school as punishment for starting a hunger strike at Papa’s clothing factory, Leon quickly lends new meaning to the term ‘student union’, determined as he is to live out his pre-ordained destiny to the fullest and change the world.
Shot in Montreal and proudly so — there’s a mix of French and English spoken and the streets will be familiar to anyone who has spent time there — Canadian director Jacob Tierney’s The Trotsky is made with a liberal nod to John Hughes’ teen-driven comedies of the 1980s, with Jay Baruchel all but running off with the picture in his battered leather bookbag as the baby Bolshevik.
But the supporting cast is so good that this is no one-note hymn to the workers. Tierney’s script is smart and funny, though some of the jokes are likely over the heads of a teen audience, who may not be up on their Russian revolutionary lore.