Documentary Films - Competition 2019 / Surematu / Estonia, Latvia 2019
How do the mechanisms of political power directly influence the lives of a country’s inhabitants? In seeking an answer to this difficult question, this cinematic essay looks at everyday life in a small Russian industrial city, uncovering along the way how dangerous and furtive an all-permeating ideology can be.
Russian documentary filmmaker Ksenia Okhapkina’s essay portrait looks at the strict order that governs life in a small industrial city in Russia. With her talent for visual composition and perceptiveness regarding local events, she puts together an audiovisual collage of seemingly minor details that enable us to observe a society bound by the regime and political power. Scenes of young girls learning about discipline at ballet school or adolescent boys training for the army are eloquent examples of citizen indoctrination, but the filmmaker avoids psychologizing the participants. Instead she portrays the dangerous ideology without excessive words or narration, thus perfectly capturing its furtive omnipresence and inconspicuousness.
Sandra Hezinová
60 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Ksenia Okhapkina
/ Screenplay Ksenia Okhapkina
/ Dir. of Photography Aleksandr Demyanenko, Artem Ignatov
/ Music Robert Jurjendal, Arian Levin
/ Editor Stijn Deconinck, Ksenia Okhapkina
/ Producer Riho Västrik
/ Production OU Vesilind
/ Coproduction VFS Films
/ Contact OU Vesilind
Ksenia Okhapkina (b. 1989). Filmography: The Smoke (2009, short), Snowstorm (2010, short), Liudians (2010, short), The Night Performance (2012, short), In the Beginning Was… The Cube (2013, medium-length), Red (2015, short), Come Back Free (2016, medium-length), Immortal (Surematu, 2019)
OU Vesilind
Ida poik 3, 75304, Järveküla
Estonia
Phone: + 372 507 806 7
E-mail: [email protected]
Riho Västrik
Producer
Uldis Cekulis
Producer
Ksenia Okhapkina
Film Director
Kadriann Kibus
Production Manager
Alexander Dudarev
Sound Designer
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