"Bob, a socially inept Dutch film critic has a crush on a young girl half his age. As he is trying to draw her attention, Duska, an unexpected guest more bizarre than himself, intervenes into his life turning it into a nightmare. A jobless and pretty much homeless loner, Duska comes all the way from Ukraine to the Netherlands, just because some time ago, while in Ukraine, Bob was careless enough to take him to a party and treat him with a cigarette. Having an engaging, albeit childish and obnoxious personality, he offers to Bob something that Bob does not need, a friendship. Bob finally manages to get rid of the crazy Russian, only to realize that Duska was indeed the only person who cared about him. And so he flies to Ukraine to find him. Bla-bla-bla
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That's more or less what most of the viewers saw in that movie. To make things worse, this perception was pretty much shared by critics. It was shocking for me to realize that none of them, pompous rottentomatoes experts included, understood what Jos Stelling's film was really all about (in fact the only one who did, was one Peter P, an IMDb reviewer whose posts appears right above mine – cheers, Peter!). So this is not a story of a like/hate relationship between two dysfunctional persons, nor is it an attempt to create a Russian version of Mr Bean, equally idiosyncratic but lacking the charm. Haunted by a seemingly parallel clash between Rowald Atkinson's character and his Los Angeles host, critics could never get over Mr Bean curse here. No wonder everyone complained of "Duska's" unjustified overlength, wishing it had ended twenty minutes after the first twenty minutes. Wake up ladies and gentlemen! Had Stelling done this, it would have been a "Count Monte-Cristo" ending with Edmond Dantes' arrest, a hardly warranted effort to save time.
How can one fail to see that Duska is nothing more nor less than Bob himself, his alter ego. Bob is a symbol of failure: He's in his fifties, he's alone, he has no friends, no woman, no love. He's scared of living and feeling – a typical West European syndrome. He doesn't know how to approach a woman he likes. It's she who makes the first move, but once she does and nearly drags him to bed, she doesn't know what to do: Making love is too real, too energy-consuming to him. So everything in his life remains unaccomplished: Both the unconsummated love and the unfinished short story that he's been writing forever are sad symbols of his reality. What he needed in order to succeed as a person and to enjoy life is the childishness and easy-goingness that Duska has. Destiny gives Bob another chance and brings him what he lacks, and yet he rejects the gift.
To take one step further, I'll say this: Duska may be more than Bob's missing alter ego; it's his soul itself. This interpretation unavoidably comes to mind since "Duska" is derived from "dusha", Russian for a "soul". Turning his back on his soul, his other "self", Bob finally faces what Stelling's character in "De Wisselwatcher" comes to face, DEATH. Bob's study is emptied, his desk covered with withered leaves and a cobweb, his building half demolished, and his never-would-be girlfriend reading the short story which finally gets finished, for death is a noble ending to his unlived life. The movie's finale – the scenes in Ukraine – is either a synopsis of the short story's ending or an allegory of Bob's self-reconciliation, or both. He finds himself back in Ukraine. He's looking for Duska and he finds him. The antique bus where Duska was born is where from now on they'll be together.
The wonderful script is complemented by superb acting: Gene Bervoets (Bob) and Sergei Makovetsky (Duska). My only reservation is that Stelling was somewhat sloppy and cliché-dependent in the way he showed Russia, Ukraine that is (hence, only a 9). Even the title of the film itself did not avoid this sloppiness: "Duska" is a low-life female name; what Stelling meant was "DusHka" (with an H) – not a big deal if don't speak Russian, but a huge distraction if you do. These shortcomings however do not justify the lack of better publicity that the film certainly deserves.
That's more or less what most of the viewers saw in that movie. To make things worse, this perception was pretty much shared by critics. It was shocking for me to realize that none of them, pompous rottentomatoes experts included, understood what Jos Stelling's film was really all about (in fact the only one who did, was one Peter P, an IMDb reviewer whose posts appears right above mine – cheers, Peter!). So this is not a story of a like/hate relationship between two dysfunctional persons, nor is it an attempt to create a Russian version of Mr Bean, equally idiosyncratic but lacking the charm. Haunted by a seemingly parallel clash between Rowald Atkinson's character and his Los Angeles host, critics could never get over Mr Bean curse here. No wonder everyone complained of "Duska's" unjustified overlength, wishing it had ended twenty minutes after the first twenty minutes. Wake up ladies and gentlemen! Had Stelling done this, it would have been a "Count Monte-Cristo" ending with Edmond Dantes' arrest, a hardly warranted effort to save time.
How can one fail to see that Duska is nothing more nor less than Bob himself, his alter ego. Bob is a symbol of failure: He's in his fifties, he's alone, he has no friends, no woman, no love. He's scared of living and feeling – a typical West European syndrome. He doesn't know how to approach a woman he likes. It's she who makes the first move, but once she does and nearly drags him to bed, she doesn't know what to do: Making love is too real, too energy-consuming to him. So everything in his life remains unaccomplished: Both the unconsummated love and the unfinished short story that he's been writing forever are sad symbols of his reality. What he needed in order to succeed as a person and to enjoy life is the childishness and easy-goingness that Duska has. Destiny gives Bob another chance and brings him what he lacks, and yet he rejects the gift.
To take one step further, I'll say this: Duska may be more than Bob's missing alter ego; it's his soul itself. This interpretation unavoidably comes to mind since "Duska" is derived from "dusha", Russian for a "soul". Turning his back on his soul, his other "self", Bob finally faces what Stelling's character in "De Wisselwatcher" comes to face, DEATH. Bob's study is emptied, his desk covered with withered leaves and a cobweb, his building half demolished, and his never-would-be girlfriend reading the short story which finally gets finished, for death is a noble ending to his unlived life. The movie's finale – the scenes in Ukraine – is either a synopsis of the short story's ending or an allegory of Bob's self-reconciliation, or both. He finds himself back in Ukraine. He's looking for Duska and he finds him. The antique bus where Duska was born is where from now on they'll be together.
The wonderful script is complemented by superb acting: Gene Bervoets (Bob) and Sergei Makovetsky (Duska). My only reservation is that Stelling was somewhat sloppy and cliché-dependent in the way he showed Russia, Ukraine that is (hence, only a 9). Even the title of the film itself did not avoid this sloppiness: "Duska" is a low-life female name; what Stelling meant was "DusHka" (with an H) – not a big deal if don't speak Russian, but a huge distraction if you do. These shortcomings however do not justify the lack of better publicity that the film certainly deserves.