“Codename ‘Banderas'” starts from the shooting of minibus by the squad of separatists. They’re shooting because, according to the information of the so-called “Walker”, there are the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Actually no, there’re civilians. The vector of events is immediately marked.
Based on the script, written by Serhiy Dzyuba and Artemiy Kirsanov. The diaries of the National Guard Serhiy Bashkov with the codename “Indian” and the memoirs of ATO veterans are taken. The director of the film is Zaza Buadze.
According to the plot, the events are set in autumn 2014 in the ATO zone on the outskirts of the village Vesele, Donetsk region. The protagonist is native of Vesele – intelligence officer Anton Saenko, that one “Banderas” (performed by the Dnipro resident Oleg Shulga). He hasn’t been at home for twenty years. Near the village and in the village itself bloody provocations are going on, where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians die – the shooting of the minibus is the first of these attacks. According to the anonymous information, above mentioned conspired Russian saboteur under the nickname “Walker” operates directly in the Ukrainian division and he’s able to cause a lot of evil. Banderas is chosen to reveal him. Lyrics motives are also added: relationships with Kyivan lover, who doesn’t support Anton’s decision to go to war and with a childhood friend who became a separatist.
So, “Codename ‘Banderas'” is an attempt to combine front and psychological drama, detective and thriller.
Meanwhile, these molding elements don’t create the satisfactory result. The first, the saddest shortcoming is unfulfillment of characters. In “Banderas” there’re problems with the plot structure and the involvement of the story but they won’t be so prominent if only they were balanced with the strong characters. The majority of heroes and heroines are depicted in one or two shades, they’re absent of any interesting features and as a result, they’re utterly schematic. The brightest example – “Walker”. Won’t reveal his character but must admit: after revealing he doesn’t change at all, stays the same, his nature is spoken out in standard phrases and that’s all.
Shulga – an actor with experience; in the historical action movie “Red” (2017) – previous Buadze’s film – he got the role of a prisoner of Gurov’s Stalinist camp – the character interesting in his contradictions. Saenko-Shulga is lack of this intimate drama. It’s clear, that according to genre logic, he’s the knight without fear and reproach but he leads complicated phycological battle with the equal rival and also deals with his past, with his doubts. These doubts, this internal struggle could enrich the protagonist. Shulga’s character is developed as a human in the end, coming out from the fossilized serious image and it brings almost physical satisfaction.
Among the secondary characters the situation isn’t better; the pleasant exception is Kharkiv actor and director Roman Zhyrov who played former Berkut in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as powerfully as possible with a bunch of characteristic details which are absent in other actors.
Talking about the dramatic framework, it’s worth saying that some lines look unfinished as Banderas’s childhood, for example. Two uncertain flashbacks are certainly not enough to become the reference point for further too patterned events (love motive). Even though it’s a potentially explosive story with several sharp collisions, set by the scenarists with the high quality work of the operators (Alexander Zemlyany did everything he could or even more) with professional, as always in Buadze, battle scenes. The dramatic potential is especially felt in the end with emotionally successful scenes – hopeless attempt to rescue the village and self-revealing of one of the protagonists.
“Banderas” would be successful if only the characters were more alive. If the dialogues had more true notes. If the authors acted more boldly. Unfortunately, these “ifs” are too many.
“Codename ‘Banderas'” is only the second game movie about front after “Kiborgs”. Our cinema is still searching the language to finally talk convincingly about war and people in war.
Obviously, it hasn’t found yet.
Dmytro Desyateryk, The Day – specially for opinionua.com
