A Russian Winter (2026) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: whenever the war is mentioned
Take a Drink: for youthful rebellion
Take a Drink: for stories of departure
Do a Shot: to Wagner references
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
One of the many tragedies associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is how it accelerated the departure of what may be its greatest hope for real Democracy- educated, artistic youth who no longer saw a society in which they could stay.
A Russian Winter follows a group of such emigres, refugees really, as they travel to Istanbul and eventually Paris in search of a new beginning.
A Toast
This film is really a series of conversations between a handful of emigres, and as it goes, eventually just two of them- the couple Margarita and Yuri. As such, director Patric Chiha works hard to punch things up with an interesting visual style, especially at the beginning, deploying a mix of lighting, eclectic background footage, and primary source material.
This is an interesting companion piece with Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow, in some ways beating her to the promised second installment following her subjects into exile. It’s heartbreaking to see what should be the lifeblood of the future recounting how they were alienated by and escaped their home country, and in many cases the family that stayed behind. Yuri’s father was in Wagner, then in the Russian Army, then on the front lines where he perished, and yet his family remains in Russia like so many others.
As the film continues, it becomes a document of an impossible stasis in which these youth don’t ever feel quite welcome or at home wherever they go, at least outside of the community of friends and fellow artists they’re able to create. This is what will need to sustain them until some hopefully inevitable Putin-free future when they can return.
Beer Two
Some of the purposefully washed out lighting feels like style in search of purpose, although that conceit is generally dropped in favor of other stylistic experimentation that’s more successful as the film goes.
Verdict
A Russian Winter is a portrait of youth set loose from the moorings of their country of origin and seeing what a life without it may be.
