East of the West - Competition 2012 / Dom s bashenkoy / Ukraine 2011
The plot of this small-scale wartime drama unfolds in Soviet Russia over the course of a winter’s day. Through a young boy’s eyes, we witness the state of a society exhausted by the interminable war and persistent food shortages, benumbed by ever-present death, and indifferent to the suffering of others. The movie is dominated by expressive black-and-white camerawork and a natural performance by the lead actor.
An eight-year-old boy and his ill mother are traveling by train to his grandfather’s house. On the way, however, the mother’s health takes a critical turn for the worse, and they are forced to abandon the train in a nameless town where the mother is admitted to a hospital. The plot of this small-scale wartime drama unfolds in Soviet Russia over the course of a winter’s day. Through the boy’s eyes, we witness the state of a society exhausted by the interminable war and persistent food shortages, benumbed by ever-present death, and indifferent to the suffering of others. The tranquil black-and-white images created by Lithuanian cameraman Rimmvydas Leipus masterfully evoke the atmosphere of the Second World War’s penultimate year in the Soviet Union. The picture was based on motifs drawn from the autobiographical story of the same name by writer and screenwriter Friedrich Gorenstein, who also penned the script for Tarkovsky’s Solaris.
81 min / Black & white, 35 mm
European premiere
Director Eva Neymann
/ Screenplay Eva Neymann podle románu / based on the novel by Friedrich Gorenstein
/ Dir. of Photography Rimmvydas Leipus
/ Music Jürgen Gröziner, Erik Satie
/ Editor Pavel Zalesov
/ Producer Aleksander Tkachenko
/ Production 1+1 Production
/ Cast Dmitriy Kobetskoy, Yekaterina Golubeva, Mikhail Veksler
/ Contact 1+1 Production
Eva Neymann (b. 1974, Zaporozhye, Ukraine) graduated in law from Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany, and in film direction from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin). After the successful short Friere ein, taue auf (2001), she shot a number of documentaries that screened at many international film festivals (Allen beim alten, 2004, Das Meer sehen, 2005, Wege Gottes, 2007). In 2007 she debuted in features with At the River (U reki), which premiered internationally at the Rotterdam IFF. House with a Turret is her second feature film.
1+1 Production
7/11 Khreshchaktyk Str., 010 01, Kiev
Ukraine
Phone: +380 444 907 095
Fax: +380 444 907 097
E-mail: [email protected]
Eva Neymann
Film Director
Jana Wolff
Sales Agent
Vitalina Bibliv
Actress
Marina Oryekhova
Festival Organizer
Andrei Alferov
Festival Organizer
Ruslan Khvastov
Film Crew
Yevgen Yanina
Film Crew
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