A gritty documentary depicting Russian street-gangs of innocent teenagers who evolve from car washers to drug pushers to loan sharks to hired assassins, not necessarily in that order, and the adult antagonists that ultimately control them. It depicts the repeating cycle as the young ones evolve into adult Fagins holding a firm grip over their younger protégés.

It is an absorbing account centered around 10 year old Vlodya Jacobs and his gang who mutilated and killed a 50 year old man in 1994 and the police investigation that ensued. It is an absorbing account of social degradation in post communist Russia embodied in its youth struggling to survive behind the façade of capitalism.

Words – Tommy Peters

(Used without permission from the channel of Journeyman Pictures. Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners)