Film Review: ‘Give Me Liberty’

Kirill Mikhanovsky crafts an unusual comedy, in which a young man risks his job driving people with disabilities by juggling other demands.

Vic, a charismatic 25-year-old Russian-American immigrant cut from the same cloth as a young Rocky Balboa, has a heart of gold and the cheekbones of a Bruce Weber model. In another movie, this affable young man (first-timer Chris Galust, who’s a natural) would almost certainly be the romantic lead, saddled with girl trouble or a small-time score of some kind — but not in “Give Me Liberty,” the second feature from Russia-born director Kirill Mikhanovsky (credited here by his last name alone), whose debut, “Sonhos de Peixe,” was a prize winner in Cannes’ Critics Week a dozen year ago.

This warm, fiercely independent comedy-drama eschews anything resembling formula in favor of a boisterous and freewheeling joyride drawn from Mikhanovsky’s own experience as the driver of a wheelchair-accessible transport vehicle. Shortly after moving from Moscow to Milwaukee (and several years before becoming a professional filmmaker), Mikhanovsky was entrusted with one of those enormous, elevator-equipped vans designed to get people with disabilities from point A to point B — during which time he discovered a wealth of amusing characters and situations seldom or never depicted on-screen.

“Give Me Liberty” never patronizes these passengers, who rely on Vic to reach job interviews, talent shows, and dance parties. Pushing back on the centuries of judgment and shame imposed on the various disabilities it depicts, the scrappy yet sincere film shines an empathetic light on those whom society so often overlooks — a generosity that extends to Russian immigrants and members of Milwaukee’s still-segregated black community. There’s a good chance that Vic may lose his job at the end of this crazy day, but we’re all the richer for having joined him on his rounds.