Can a movie that opens with a scene of a corpse being cast in concrete develop into a poetic portrayal of Russia past and present? Driver Georgy finds out that surprises can come at any time regardless of how ordinary the journey may seem. This unusual mosaic of stories was selected for the competition at Cannes.
Truck driver Georgi packs up the lunch his wife has made him and heads out on the road. But encounters with various characters, including a teenage girl who sells her body (and knows the reason why), transform his routine delivery trip into an experience the hero never wanted nor imagined. Can a man maintain his humanity under conditions forcing him to fight for survival? Can a picturesque landscape temper the cruelty that takes place within it? The combination of sheer rationality and poetic absurdity, along with a feeling of powerlessness that takes hold of the viewer (even with the understanding that the truth is elsewhere), nudges the film towards the writings of Ádám Bodor and Franz Kafka. Camerawork by Oleg Mutu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and evocative sound design by Vladimir Golovnitsky (How I Ended This Summer) helped foster the sense of timelessness in a work the director built out of stories that he himself heard or lived through during his years of traveling across Russia.
127 min / Color, DCP
Director Sergei Loznitsa
/ Screenplay Sergej Loznica / Sergei Loznitsa
/ Dir. of Photography Oleg Mutu
/ Editor Danielius Kokanauskis
/ Producer Heino Deckert, Oleg Kochan / Oleg Kokhan
/ Production ma.ja.de. filmproduktion, Sota Cinema Group
/ Cast Viktor Němec / Viktor Nemets, Vlad Ivanov, Maria Varsami, Vladimir Golovin, Olga Šuvalova / Olga Shuvalova
/ Contact Fortissimo Films
Sergei Loznitsa (b. 1964, Baranovichi, Belarus) grew up in Kiev and graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering and mathematics. For several years he worked in the field of expert systems and artificial intelligence. In 1997 he graduated from Moscow’s VGIK film school, then moved on to St. Petersburg to produce his own documentaries, including Portrait (Portret, 2002), which took a Special Jury Mention at KVIFF 2003. Artel won the award for Best Documentary under 30 Minutes at the 2007 Karlovy Vary festival. Others of his films have been awarded at festivals in Oberhausen, Leipzig, and Krakow. Loznitsa has lived in Germany since 2001. My Joy, chosen to compete at Cannes, is the director’s feature debut.
Fortissimo Films
Van Diemenstraat 100, 1013 CN, Amsterdam
Netherlands
Phone: +31 206 273 215
Fax: +31 206 261 155
E-mail: [email protected]
Sergei Loznitsa
Film Director
Gabriëlle Rozing
Sales Agent
Maria Baker
Film Crew
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