East of the West - Competition 2012 / Ljudi tam / Latvia 2012
The protagonist of this raw Latvian drama is twenty-something Jan, who lives in a dreary housing complex on the outskirts of town. He and his best friend Cracker just hang out smoking weed, occasionally making a little cash on the side through petty theft. Then Jan’s mundane life gets thrown for a loop when he meets the beautiful Sabina. The desire for love and a better life pulls him from his resignation and goads him to fight against the hopelessness of his situation.
Jan is a young man of about 20 who lives with his grandfather in a dreary housing complex on the outskirts of town. He and his best friend Cracker just hang out smoking weed, occasionally making a little cash on the side through petty theft. But then one evening Jan meets and becomes enchanted by the beautiful, high-class Sabina, and his mundane life gets thrown for a loop. He takes a liking to the lifestyle of the golden, pampered kids he meets, and he longs to penetrate society’s upper echelons. The desire for love and a better life pulls him from his resignation and goads him to fight against the hopelessness of his situation. Latvian director and screenwriter Aik Karapetian’s raw debut drama contemplates the notion that environment determines a person’s character. The filmmaker asks whether a person can break free of this environment and, if so, at what cost. Thanks to the dynamic editing and the use of hand-held camera, the filmmakers succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of the "prefab jungle” where, in the end, there is no one else to rely on but yourself.
90 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Aik Karapetian
/ Screenplay Aik Karapetian
/ Dir. of Photography Jānis Eglītis
/ Music Elviss Zants, Kristaps Krievs
/ Editor Tambet Tasuja
/ Producer Roberts Vinovskis
/ Production Locomotive Productions
/ Cast Ilya Shcherbakov, Semyon Serzin, Mikhail Razumovsky, Eduard Murashov, Viktoria Kondratenko
/ Contact Locomotive Productions
www: www.peopleoutthere-thefilm.com
Aik Karapetian (b. 1983, Gyumri, Armenia) grew up and went to school in Latvia. He graduated in direction from the Latvian Academy of Culture, subsequently taking a degree from the Académie Internationale des Arts ESEC in Paris. He has worked on a number of short movies as a director and screenwriter, and presented them at numerous film festivals. His short film Disgust (Riebums, 2007) was judged the best student work at the 2007 Lielais Kristaps Latvian film festival. In 2011 he directed a production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville for the Latvian National Opera, which took the award for best performance of the season. Karapetian is also sought after for his skills directing commercials. People Out There is his feature film debut.
Locomotive Productions
Bruninieku 28-57, LV 1011, Riga
Latvia
Phone: +371 292 986 67
E-mail: [email protected]
Zanda Dudina
Film Institution Rep.
Aik Karapetian
Film Director
Roberts Vinovskis
Producer
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