Hare Hunting

Colour, 35 mm
Russia, 2003, 23 min
Section: East of the West
Oficiální stránky: www.hare-hunting.ru

Synopsis

Bitter cold. A mother takes her son to the country to say goodbye to his dead grandmother. The boy still doesn’t understand death’s implications, he only notes the unnatural cold of his grandmother’s body. He tries to get his grieving grandfather to go with him into the woods after hares. Grandpa obliges him and they wander around the snowy landscape all day long. A big white hare emerges from the woods near their small fire, and against all regulations, the grandfather kills it with an axe. In shock over the act he has committed he is reduced to tears.

About the director

Igor Voloshin (b. 1974) studied acting at the State Theatre Institute in Yaroslavl (1996) before returning to his native Sevastopol to work at a local theatre. He then studied documentary and television filmmaking at Moscow’s VGIK film school, graduating in 2000. Filmography: Mesivo (2000) and Bitch (Suka, 2002), reflecting the atmosphere of the Chechen War (screened in last year’s documentary competition at Karlovy Vary). The short film Hare Hunting,(2003) is drawn from Kenji Maruyama’s story In the Snow was made at Sverdlovsk Film Studios.