The Genius of the Place

Colour, 35 mm
Belarus, 2003, 15 min
Section: Documentary Competition

Synopsis

Attitudes to the distant and recent past, and the reality and quality of contemporary life in Belarus are interpreted through movement and expression by mime Viacheslav Inozemtsev, actor and director of InZest Pantomime Theatre. His character, an unperceived and eerie “wanderer” through time and space, is confronted by archive news footage and integrated with his “creation-reaction” into the natural village and urban scenery captured on film. He personifies the judgment, memory and consciousness of national existence.

About the director

Galina Adamovich, director of Belarusfilm, graduated from Minsk’s Belarus Art Academy in 1994. She has shot the documentaries: Rubbish (Turusy na kolyosakh, 1992), Love Me When I’m Black (Polyubi menya chornyenkim, 1993), The Woman’s Question (Zhenski vopros, 1995), Faust Arlena. Music, Help Me! (Faust Arlena. Muzyka, pomogi!, 1996), What Is My Pimen to You? For the Town and World (Chto v Pimenye tyebe moyom? Gorodu i miru, 1997), Holidays for an Orphan (Kanikuly dlya siroty, 1998), The Genius of the Place (Gyeni mesta, 2002).