Igla is best known for starring "Kino" rock star Viktor Tsoy in the leading role and featuring his music in the soundtrack. But it's far from an insubstantial music tie-in film; I was seriously impressed. As other reviewers have pointed out, the plot is simple. That's true, but it's best that way considering how the film is presented, and it seemed to me intentional.

This film is powered mainly not by what exactly what is told but by how it is told. While the sequence of events is simple, it is revealed obliquely, with snatches of information and actions or set pieces that avoid obvious exposition. The real exceptional element is the grim surrealism in how the events are shown us -- Dima wearing a mask as Moro first reunites with her is much more eloquent than just saying she seems changed. These elements with artistically out-there steps such as the inclusion of brief drawn-on animations and the atmospheric inclusions of outside film and sound clips create an overall feel that's impossible to quite put into words. And the postmodern elements are all included very intelligently -- such as when the scene begins to imitate a Kung-Fu or action film only long enough to subvert the trope and show Moro get knocked down.

All this is quite impressively film against a very bleak-looking late- Soviet Kazakh backdrop that definitely adds to the atmosphere. Tsoy does a very good job acting-wise -- like some other talented performers without specific acting training he communicates a lot of simple realism and directness that works very well.

While the film assumes an anti-drug position from the outset, there as powerful sense of nihilism in its total position, considering the demonstrated outcome of taking personal action the way out hero does. A very impressive and powerful film.

There is an opinion under this sky that Russian cinema died at the end of 1980s or in the beginning of the 1990s and since then nothing appropriate has been shot on camera. Well, to be more exact, to my mind, the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s is the golden era of Russian cinema. While Soviet era shined on screen for quite some time delivering many amusing and family-oriented masterpieces, the period we are talking about is like a flash of light. Being a shooting star, it screeched and vanished near the end of the millennium, while sky-rocketing in its full bliss. The movies of this short, tragic but awesome period were loaded and loaded with real ammo unlike today's flip-flop chicken flicks-blockbusters, which, in most cases, are able to shoot blanks only... OK, got carried away, for which sorry, ladies and gentlemen.

"Igla" is one of those loaded movies. Maybe you should have spent your teen years in the 1980s-1990s to feel its drive. Or perhaps you should be kind of out-of-this-world. Or, maybe, just a very romantic and un-CGI dreamer. Or corny and unpretentious fellow, who enjoys cinema without cornflakes & Coca-Cola. Or insane... Just make sure that you are watching the original "Igla", not a glamour remix/remake, which, as this treacherous cinema business rotates today, does exist too.

Oh, almost forgot to say a couple of words regarding the essence of the movie. It's about a bunch of young degenerates living on the ashes of the once prolific empire (USSR). You cannot blame these weirdos - the older generation led them into a dead end.

A 10 out of 10 for this greyish no-escape flick from the amazing 1980s. Thanks for attention.

If you can understand Russian then you simply have to watch this film, I'm not aware of an English translation available but if you find one and have an interest in life at the end of the USSR then watch Igla. This film is a vehicle for Viktor Tsoi, Soviet rock superstar and one of the most talented musicians there has ever been. It's a film made on a budget but this adds to the atmosphere of the thing,The film has some great direction and although cheap has been made with thought and care. However the best thing about this film is it's soundtrack, truly brilliant, Tsoi really is a music icon and this film, made not long before his death is a fitting tribute to him and his legacy. I recommend this film wholeheartedly!