Aita

NOW ON TUBI! For proof that great cinema can rise up from the most inhospitable places on Earth, check out the Yakuti action thriller masterpiece Aita, directed by Stepan Burnashev from a screenplay by Burnashev and Svetlana Taayko. This 2023 film was made in the Republic of Sakha in eastern Russia, where it experiences subzero blizzards in winter and nonstop rain the rest of the year.

In a tiny Yakuti village of Yakutsk, one night after a big dance for the teens, young girl Aita (Aytalina Yakovleva), hangs herself after she gets home. During his investigation, police inspector Nikolai Sirditov (Innokenty Lukovtsev) finds a note in the girl’s pocket that reads “Afonia, I hate you!” He immediately asks police officer Afonya Athanasius (Andrey Fomin) about it, as the Russian cop who was recently transferred there is the only person with that name. He admits that he gave Aita a ride home the night of the dance, making him one of the last people to see her alive. When the young teen’s body is examined, it is found that she was pregnant.

“This situation of an indigenous girl being violated by a white outsider puts Inspector Nikolai into a precarious position.”

Word gets out on social media and the girl’s father, Aiaal (Georgiy Bessonov) is out for vengeance. Afonia’s Yakuti wife, Sardaaana (Aytalina Tsypandina), is shunned by her neighbors for what they believe her husband did to Aita. This situation of an indigenous girl being violated by a white outsider puts Inspector Nikolai into a precarious position. He is required to keep Afonya safe from the vigilante mob, but he is also a member of the village and is outraged to the point of perhaps letting the blood spill to put out the fire in the never-ending rain.

I love rain. One of the reasons I am the unexpected deadhead I am is because of all the songs by the Grateful Dead that mention rain. 99% of the rain you see in any movie is fake and made with sprinkler machines. In Aita, you will get to see real rain in abundance. In Texas, I would see downpours compared to a cow pissing on a flat rock. With the torrential storms in Sakha, it’s more like a whole herd whizzing on a flagstone football field. The director turned this liability into a resource that he harnessed for an ominous atmosphere like no other. The rain becomes a presence that hangs over everything, even pounding to get in when you are safe inside.