Leningrad 'Kolshik' by Ilya Naishuller Is An Insane Video Showing A Catastrophe Unfolding In Reverse

A new music video called "Kolschik" for for Russian band Leningrad by Russian director Ilya Naishuller is a marvel of VFX (by Russian studio CGF), boldness, creativity, plus plenty of gore. It all centers around a terrible accident that happens at a circus that sets off a chain of events that results in total chaos. And it's brilliant.

But the clever trick is that Ilya Naishuller has presented the whole series of tragicomic events taking place in reverse. So, we start at the end, with black smoke billowing from a building and people fleeing, some of them on fire, from the horrors within. The whole event comes across as some kind of twisted insane disaster.

It's not shy on violence, or inventiveness, and that should come as no surprise to people who are familiar with Ilya Naishuller's other work. He directed the first person POV action flick Hardcore Henry (originally it was called Hardcore movie). Previous to Hardcore Henry Ilya Naishuller had a dry run with his frenetic POV music videos for his band Biting Elbows (he's lead singer) and their tracks "Bad Motherfucker" and "Stampede."

So Ilya Naishuller is no stranger to making chaotic, blood-splattered music videos, but this one has an added sense of drama and tension due to it being in reverse. Because as you watch the connected events unfold you wonder what started off this calamitous domino effect that encompasses gangsters, circus goers, performers, the police, and a hungry tiger.

The style of the Russian director's work, which has a sense of delirium and discord present (and obviously violence), has brought Ilya Naishuller comparisons to Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino. But it's almost too lazy a connection, although not without some truth, as Naishuller acknowledged in a RedditAMA he did while promoting Hardcore Henry.

"As a huge fan of Quentin's, it incredibly humbling." he noted. "However, I think people make the mistake of comparing us due to a)violence and b) guys in suits - which is a little misguided seeing as how Tarantino, at least to me, stands on his own as the writer of some of the best dialogue ever, while the only dialogue people could have seen in my work were the 6 lines in the Hardcore teaser. Fun fact: we share the same agent, and I'm super nervous about what Quentin's opinions will be of Hardcore when I'll hopefully get a chance to show it to him."

Check out Ilya Naishuller's music video for Leningrad's "Kolschik" above.