The Tsar of Love and Techno

This story is a chronicle of two former soldiers who stand in the inevitability of death. Ironically, the army has declared Danilo and Kolya as killed in action, but here we truly understand how their lives end. Their final days are spent in a strange yet intimate comradery, one in which they openly acknowledge having sexual fantasies about Danilo’s fictitious wife and Kolya’s own mother, for instance.

As prisoners of war, the captives have accepted their new reality: the fact that whatever dreams and aspirations they may have had at some point in their lives are now merely distant memories. In fact, their captivity under the old man seems at times like a mandatory waiting period, purgatorial in nature, while the inevitability of their death awaits. Even in Danilo’s attempt to escape, there is a sense of futility to his machinations. Kolya is virtually unmoved by Danilo’s sudden, sporadic urgency, borne more out of embarrassment than a desire to flee from captivity. There is a tragic element to this story, despite Kolya’s own admission that at 23 years old, he has already lived beyond what he had any right to live. Each of these men’s lives represents the casualties of war, of lives ended too soon due to the living conditions of a war-torn country. As both young men live their final days, neither one receives any lasting revelation or catharsis.