Portrait

Black and white, 35 mm
Russia, 2002, 27 min
Section: Documentary Competition

Synopsis

The look is reminiscent of old photographs. Stiff shots of men and women alternate against the landscape and a dilapidated wooden settlement – from winter to winter. The inhabitants are mostly old people with touching and humbly resigned faces, whose mode of existence is revealed only by surrounding objects and the environment. The wind whispers, leaves rustle, crows caw, dogs bark, and the chopping of axes rings out. Only the flowing river and the changing seasons of the year as reflected by nature bring motion and the presence of life into this elegiac image of reconciled existence. Portrait was awarded the Main Prize at this year’s International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

About the director

Sergey Loznitsa (b. 1964) graduated in applied mathematics from Kiev Polytechnic (1987) and from Moscow’s VGIK film school (1996). Documentary films: Today We Are Going to Build a House (Segodnya my postroiim dom, 1996), Diktator iz gipsa (1998), Life. Autumn (Zhizn, osen, 1998), The Halt (Polustanovka, 2000), The Settlement (Poseleniye, 2001) and Portrait (2002).