Ragin

Colour, 35 mm
Russia, Austria, 2004, 93 min
IP – International premiere
Section: East of the West - competitive
Oficiální stránky: www.ragin.ru

Synopsis

The film is based on motifs drawn from Chekhov’s story “Ward 6,” with a plot situated in a provincial town at the beginning of the 20th century. A loner named Andrei Ragin is head doctor at the local hospital. Evenings, he kills time reading specialized literature. He is fascinated by a paper on the treatment of psychosis by a Viennese psychiatrist, and he imagines the session described therein. His attempt to apply the practice fails because of the incompetence of the staff. He consoles himself for the failure in debates with a teacher who is avoiding forced labour by living among psychopaths. The man’s aggressive philosophy and growing distrust of his colleagues spark Ragin’s imagination, and morbid visions foretell the breakdown of his personality.... In harmony with Chekhov, the director highlights the pernicious nature of the traditional ailment of the Russian intelligentsia, one susceptible to exchanging activity for idle chitchat and to replacing the lack of their own thoughts with the citations of others’.

About the director

Kirill Serebrennikov (b. 1969) graduated in math and physics from Rostov University (1992) and from a course in theatre direction at Moscow’s National Academy of Theatrical Arts (GITIS). He then worked as a writer, director, and moderator for the TV stations Don-TV and ATV in Moscow, where he shot music videos, entertainment programmes, made-for-TV movies and popular series. He took and at TEFI-99, the top domestic TV awards ceremony, for the TV film Naked (Razdetye, 1997) and the documentary Secrets of a Thunderstorm (Tainy grozy, 1997). He earned renown in the theatre with productions of Plasticine (Plastelin), Terrorism (Terrorizm), Some Explicit Polaroids (Otkrovennye polaroidnye snimki), Sweet Bird of Youth (Sladkogolosaya ptitsa yunosti), The Petty Bourgeoisie (Meshchane), and others. For these he received the theatre awards Seagull (Chaika) and Triumph, the award of the Oleg Tabakov Foundation. Ragin (2005) is his film debut.