This is a truly unique movie, tragic, ironic, and hilarious, a noir remake of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The story delves into the tragicomic life of Valya, a loner with a rather special job, he plays the role of the victim in the reconstructions of the murders made by the police. On the scene of the murder, Valya steps into the part of the victim shortly before their death, sometimes risking his own life. When he is home, he gets bombarded with lectures from his mother to settle down in life, also having nightmares and dreams of his father's murder in a very absurd way.

Beyond the moments of absurdness, "Playing the Victim" is a hard- hitting social commentary part psychological drama with minimalistic cinematography. The leading performances are tremendous, worthy to mention the final monologue in the Japanese restaurant. The ending of the film is unsettling role reversal, as Valya veers from falsely charming to downright sinister.

Kirill Serebrennikov's "Playing the victim' is visually great, Hamlet mixed with funnier version of Joseph Losey's "The Servant", it's almost artistic at times, with its complexity of certain shots which will not be registered in the first viewing, simply because you're wrapped up too much into its story and Valya's world.