The Fool

2014

116 mins

Directed by Yuriy Bykov
93%
91%
Drama

Acclaimed Russian drama centred on a humble plumber who discovers a serious fault in a dorm with 800 inhabitants. The... More

Acclaimed Russian drama centred on a humble plumber who discovers a serious fault in a dorm with 800 inhabitants. The building needs to be evacuated immediately, but a system of corrupt bureaucrats stonewall his call for action.

Less

Where to watch The Fool

We aren’t aware of any way to watch The Fool... More in the United Kingdom. If we’ve got that wrong, please contact us.

There are no available streaming platforms.

There is no screening information for this title.

The Fool | Ratings & Reviews

93_%14 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
91_%224 reviews
Audience score rating

"Writer-director Yury Bykov delivers another major work, this one even more deserving of international attention..."

—

Variety

"Wraps its Hobbesian vision of squalor around a fable worthy of Frank Capra, but twisted to suggest a cruel inversion of Capra's inspirational allegories of humble Everymen crusading for justice and democratic ideals."

—

The New York Times

"A wonderfully constructed film that takes a subtle-yet-angry swipe at the state of modern Russia."

—

Screen Daily

"Extremely bleak and depressing even by Russian standards, the third film of writer-director Yury Bykov, The Fool (Durak), is also his best."

—

Hollywood Reporter

"The dialogue is broadly generalized, urgently on point, and bracing in its undisguised diagnostic fury. If you can accept its unabashed didacticism, The Fool plays crisply."

—