This series of four short films proves the director’s competence as a storyteller. Vsevolod Benigsen is a best-selling Russian novelist. <State of Emergency> seems like a simple collection of short films, but they share the one theme of the irony of life and the emergency of choice and judgment occurred by chance. The story of people making selfish choices for their own lives and the resulting destruction shows the fact that the events happening in the small village is not just a matter of an individual and it bears a striking resemblance to modern people’s state of mind. Some of the emergency situations are fairly comical. A young man on motorbike and a married couple get involved in a fender bender accident. Once the couple learns that the motorcyclist is a son of the mayor, they decide to bury him alive. To understand the situation, you must understand Russian bureaucracy. These small episodes well depict the crisis and morality of the community in the film. (LEE Sang-yong)