| Bimmer | |
| Director: | Peter Buslov |
| Producer: | Sergei Chliyants |
| Distributor: | CTB Film Company |
| Budget: | $700,000 |
| Runtime: | 110 minutes |
| Country: | Russia |
| Language: | Russian |
Bimmer (Russian: Бумер|Bumer, pronounced as /ru/) is a 2003 Russian road movie directed by Peter Buslov who co-wrote it with Denis Rodimin. The plot revolves around four friends who get into trouble with the law and flee Moscow in a black BMW (the eponymous "bimmer").
As the gang drives across the Russian landscape, they encounter corruption, violence, poverty, and various situations characterizing the bleakness and challenges of small-town life in post-Soviet Russia.
Considered to be not only a crime drama but also a critique of the policies of Boris Yeltsin, Bimmer depicts the economic crisis that followed Russia's sudden transition to a free market economy, and with it, a lost generation of men who grow up in a world ruled by criminal gangs and corrupt law enforcement.
Despite a modest budget of only $700,000 and a limited cinematic release, Bimmer became a cult classic in Russia, Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe, praised both for its cinematic quality as well as its soundtrack. Both the film and soundtrack have won numerous awards, including the Golden Aries from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.[1]
Four members of an underground car theft ring named Kostya (nicknamed "Cat"), Ramah, Killa and Dimon get into serious trouble while stealing a 1995 BMW 750i from an important member of the secret police as revenge for the assault of Dimon and the impounding of his Mercedes-Benz E-Class following a road rage incident, and must run away from Moscow.
The crew encounters numerous obstacles while on the run. They fight with rival gangsters and corrupt members of the police, the car also runs out of gas and gets a flat tire. Cat must deal with the fallout of his broken relationship, Ramah finds himself a girlfriend, but is unable to settle down due to his lifestyle of being an outlaw, Killa puts himself and the gang in much trouble due to his extreme temper and tendencies towards violence and Dimon gets stabbed with a screwdriver during a heated scuffle.
During the film, they progressively find themselves in more and more dire situations, which is usually their fault, but they also find solace in friendship and in the protection of good, caring people.
In the climax of the film, after evading law enforcement for some time and finding themselves without money, an injured Dimon and the inability to return to their previous gang lives, they make an attempt to rob a lucrative computer store in a small town after a night out with some of the stores female employees. However, off-camera, the robbery goes horribly wrong and Ramah and Killa are killed in a shootout with the local police, with Cat not confirmed to be killed, but implied to be shot dead off-screen.
Dimon, who was left as the getaway driver of the BMW (presumably due to his injury) contemplates joining his friends in the gunfight. However, he drives away, although clearly distraught over the death of his friends, and flees into the nearby countryside. Abandoning the car on a muddy country road and catching a bus out of town.
The last shot of the film is of the abandoned BMW's lights slowly fading away as the car battery dies. Symbolizing the death of not only the group, but the death of their friendship and their way of life as well.
Throughout the film, Cat's mobile cell phone continuously rings inside the vehicle, unbeknownst to Cat, who had lost it previously in the beginning of the film. Its ringtone is the basis of the theme music of the movie.
At the beginning of the film, it can be seen that the BMW which is being stolen belongs to a Latvian or that the scene is actually meant to happen in Latvia, since the car has improvised 'LV' car license-plates on it. An alternative explanation is that the car was not legally imported into Russia and was being driven with Latvian plates to avoid customs duties.
Some scenes of the film were filmed in the town of Zvenigorod.
The musical theme of the film is the ringtone of Kostya's cell phone.
In 2006, Bimmer: Film Vtoroy, a sequel to Bimmer, was released.[2] It was directed by Peter Buslov and written by Kim Belov, Peter Buslov, Denis Rodimin and Ivan Vyrypaev. The film proved to be very commercially successful, taking in nearly $14,000,000 USD at the box office, despite lower average review scores than the first film. A video game was released in the same year, titled Bimmer: Torn Towers.