East of the West - Competition 2018 / Glubokie reki / Russia 2018
A stark landscape, unforgiving surroundings, gruelling work, and intense conflicts within the family circle – a vicious cycle, the burden of which is only accentuated by the return of the youngest brother, who is to take the place of his sick father in this family of lumberjacks. Under the watchful eye of Aleksandr Sokurov comes another searingly vivid and visually remarkable debut with profound humanistic appeal.
Day after day in a forgotten corner of the Caucasus Mountains, a family of lumberjacks trudges through the impassable landscape to chop down and bring home wood in order to fulfil their contract with the local sawmill. When the father is seriously injured by a falling tree, his place must be taken by the youngest of the brothers, who left the impoverished region years before. His arrival opens old wounds and fuels conflicts within the family and in the hostile village. Stifled emotions and an oppressive image of a fragmenting society highlight themes of ineffectual communication and xenophobia. The heightening animosity visually and emotively underlines the threat of destruction from nature itself, which could, at any moment, strike at the very foundations of the family home. This exceptional debut by Vladimir Bitokov was created under the watchful eye of Alexandr Sokurov.
Kamila Dolotina
75 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Vladimir Bitokov
/ Screenplay Vladimir Bitokov
/ Dir. of Photography Alexander Demyanenko
/ Music Murat Kabardokov
/ Editor Anna Mass
/ Art Director Maxim Malleev
/ Producer Nikolay Yankin
/ Production Non-commercial fund for cinematography support "Example of intonation"
/ Cast Oleg Guseinov, Rustam Muratov, Muhamed Sabiev, Tahir Teppeev
/ Contact Non-commercial fund for cinematography support "Example of intonation"
Vladimir Bitokov (b. 1985, Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkar Republic, USSR). Selected filmography: Anker (2014, short), Brother (Brat, 2011, short), Mother’s Letter (Pismo k materi, 2010)
Non-commercial fund for cinematography support "Example of intonation"
197101, Kamennoostrovsky pr., 10, , Saint-Petersburg
Russia
Phone: +7 911 845 8523
E-mail: [email protected]
Nikolay Yankin
Producer
Vladimir Bitokov
Film Director
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