The Hollow

Colour, 35 mm
Russia, 2007, 103 min
IP – International premiere
Section: East of the West - Films in Competition

Synopsis

A remote village in the depths of Russia. Only photographs on the cottage walls indicate that this is the beginning of the 20th century. The women here devote themselves to almost pagan rituals and believe that their lives are magically linked to the nearby hollow. He who breaks this bond will perish. The only person to have broken free from the age-old order is the young educated Karev. He still wants to be part of his home environment but he has already been infected with urban civilisation. The fact that he is different attracts the local women, but to get close to him would bring about their destructi… The film is based on the early prose of poet Sergey Yesenin, which also echoes with his own inner conflict: the nostalgia of the renegade, offset by the affectation of a dissolute socialite. The director’s experience with documentary filmmaking is apparent from the way she reanimates times gone by, authenticated in the credible props, costumes and the acting. The attitudes, psychology, expressions and gestures of the protagonists are all shaded by the patina of a faded era. They also bear witness to the appealing and unappealing traits of the Russian mentality which often provide insight for meditations on the “mysteries of the Russian soul”.

About the director

Marina Razbezhkina (b. 1948, Kazan, Russia) studied philology in Kazan (1971) and then established herself as a screenwriter and director of documentary films. She worked in Kazan and subsequently in Moscow. She is currently working for the Kultura TV channel and heads film direction courses at the Internews Independent School of Film and Television. She has made over 30 documentaries, the majority of which were awarded at domestic and international festivals. She made the feature film Harvest Time (Vremya zhatvy) in 2004, which was a success at the KVIFF and elsewhere. For her new film The Hollow, based on the early and little known prose of Sergey Yesenin, she worked on the script with Pavel Finn and director Lidiya Bobrova.