For a film that is consistently beautiful in its visual presentation, The Edge is adamantly concerned, among other things, with the ugliness of human nature and the individuals that thrive to move past it. Furthermore, it is a great opportunity to see steam engines in all their imposing glory, symbolically used as elements of freedom in a world filled with hunger and deprivation. More than a train film, however, it aptly explores the impacts of war's end on both the soldiers and those that waited it out, exposing the prejudices that either hold or fall depending on which group one belongs to. After World War II, Ignat (Vladimir Mashkov) is a war hero entering a Siberian camp filled with Russians and Germans alike where trains become objects of status and an extension of the characters themselves. Stricken with sporadic seizures caused by several past concussions, Ignat is no longer authorized to be a conductor, his stubornness to continue being one landing him into trouble. When he comes upon an old idle engine rotting in the forest, he encounters a lost soul living within its ruins. As he brings back both entities to the camp, ideas of national identity and social duty are tested, making Ignat re-evaluate all of life's previous certainties. Narratively, The Edge constantly shifts gear as it establishes a balance between tragedy and comedy, love and war, life and death; with steam-rolling engines at the center of it all. Furthermore, it is a frowning look back at a country torn apart by fear at a time when its people's worst enemies were its leaders. Thematically densely packed, this unique vision of humanity's borderless nature advances on the viewer like welcomed freight train, its impact one of great cinematic satisfaction.
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