Travelling across Russia in mostly silence, Ilya Povolotsky’s debut feature has a strange confidence in its own insistent dispiritedness
With long journeys in a red camper van, long unbroken shots of shattered Caucasian landscapes, and very long silences between its alienated father and daughter, Ilya Povolotsky’s debut feature has a strange confidence in its own monumental dispiritedness. “I want to know that you have a plan,” says the teenager. “And that we won’t get stuck somewhere outside Khabarovsk with a chicken and a sad librarian woman.” This being a Russian art film, you wouldn’t bet against it.
The two unnamed characters, played by Maria Lukyanova and Gela Chitava, are making their way across the country for unspecified reasons, other than her desire to see the sea. They run a small mobile cinema out of their van for wan residents of purgatorial steppe towns and flog snacks...
With long journeys in a red camper van, long unbroken shots of shattered Caucasian landscapes, and very long silences between its alienated father and daughter, Ilya Povolotsky’s debut feature has a strange confidence in its own monumental dispiritedness. “I want to know that you have a plan,” says the teenager. “And that we won’t get stuck somewhere outside Khabarovsk with a chicken and a sad librarian woman.” This being a Russian art film, you wouldn’t bet against it.
The two unnamed characters, played by Maria Lukyanova and Gela Chitava, are making their way across the country for unspecified reasons, other than her desire to see the sea. They run a small mobile cinema out of their van for wan residents of purgatorial steppe towns and flog snacks...
- 4/16/2024
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
The letter said: “To continue providing space for representatives of the Russian cultural sector on international platforms means to normalize the unequal circumstances in which filmmakers in Russia and Ukraine live and work today.”
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has responded to an open letter published by DocuDays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival this week, that criticised the decision by IDFA to programme films “made in Russia and by Russian authors.”
The letter refers to the selection of Russian director Ilya Povolotsky’s Mud, a world premiere in the Envision programme at this year’s festival. The synopsis...
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has responded to an open letter published by DocuDays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival this week, that criticised the decision by IDFA to programme films “made in Russia and by Russian authors.”
The letter refers to the selection of Russian director Ilya Povolotsky’s Mud, a world premiere in the Envision programme at this year’s festival. The synopsis...
- 11/10/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
When asked how she felt about this year’s opening film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) having been supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund (Ibf), the fund’s executive director and IDFA deputy director Isabel Arrate Fernandez beamed with pride, stating it is “amazing, most of all because it’s a beautiful film.”
The film in question is Olga Chernyk’s “A Picture to Remember,” which has its world premiere at IDFA, running between Nov. 8-19. “The film team was involved with IDFA in several ways, not only through financing via the fund but also because Olga and Kasia [Boniecka], the film’s editor, attended the IDFA Project Space earlier this year. From the fund’s perspective, you never know where the films will end up, and when they start their career this way it’s incredible.”
Speaking to Variety, Fernandez recalls how “A Picture to Remember” was...
The film in question is Olga Chernyk’s “A Picture to Remember,” which has its world premiere at IDFA, running between Nov. 8-19. “The film team was involved with IDFA in several ways, not only through financing via the fund but also because Olga and Kasia [Boniecka], the film’s editor, attended the IDFA Project Space earlier this year. From the fund’s perspective, you never know where the films will end up, and when they start their career this way it’s incredible.”
Speaking to Variety, Fernandez recalls how “A Picture to Remember” was...
- 11/9/2023
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will open with the world premiere of “A Picture to Remember” by Olga Chernykh. The film, which received the support of the IDFA Bertha Fund in 2022, is a deeply personal account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women.
The full program for the festival’s 36th edition was announced earlier today by IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, who stated the festival’s opening film is “both personal and political,” adding that “the director does not shy away from trying to build a cinematic world with fragile elements. The courage and originality of the film’s approach opens up to a much larger worldview.”
Before announcing this year’s full lineup, Nyrabia took a moment to acknowledge the current Israel-Hamas war: “To us, respecting the human...
The full program for the festival’s 36th edition was announced earlier today by IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, who stated the festival’s opening film is “both personal and political,” adding that “the director does not shy away from trying to build a cinematic world with fragile elements. The courage and originality of the film’s approach opens up to a much larger worldview.”
Before announcing this year’s full lineup, Nyrabia took a moment to acknowledge the current Israel-Hamas war: “To us, respecting the human...
- 10/18/2023
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
Olga Chernykh’s A Picture To Remember explores the war in Ukraine through three generations.
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will open with the world premiere of Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh’s A Picture To Remember as the festival unveils the line-ups for the international and Envision competitions.
A Picture To Remember explores the war in Ukraine through three generations of women, including the director herself, and is a co-production between Ukraine, France and Germany. The film is screening in Envision and has received backing from the IDFA Bertha Support fund.
The international competition features 11 titles, seven of which are world premieres,...
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will open with the world premiere of Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh’s A Picture To Remember as the festival unveils the line-ups for the international and Envision competitions.
A Picture To Remember explores the war in Ukraine through three generations of women, including the director herself, and is a co-production between Ukraine, France and Germany. The film is screening in Envision and has received backing from the IDFA Bertha Support fund.
The international competition features 11 titles, seven of which are world premieres,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam revealed its opening night film and announced competition lineups in two main categories today, completing the program for the upcoming 36th edition of the world’s largest documentary festival.
At a press conference in Amsterdam, A Picture to Remember, directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh, was announced as IDFA’s opening night film on November 8. The festival, which includes more than 250 films total, runs from Nov. 8-19.
“[A Picture to Remember] presents a deeply personal and essay-style account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women: Chernykh herself, her mother, and her grandmother,” IDFA said in a release. “In a bid for connection and intimacy, the filmmaker uses old family films, recordings of conversations, and news reports to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother. The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film that travels through time fluidly.
At a press conference in Amsterdam, A Picture to Remember, directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh, was announced as IDFA’s opening night film on November 8. The festival, which includes more than 250 films total, runs from Nov. 8-19.
“[A Picture to Remember] presents a deeply personal and essay-style account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women: Chernykh herself, her mother, and her grandmother,” IDFA said in a release. “In a bid for connection and intimacy, the filmmaker uses old family films, recordings of conversations, and news reports to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother. The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film that travels through time fluidly.
- 10/18/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The strand is free of style or length constraints.
Films from Jean-Luc Godard, Delphine Girard and Bas Devos will screen in San Sebastian International Film Festival’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, a strand of the festival free of style or length constraints.
Godard’s posthumous short film Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’, which premiered in Cannes, will open the strand alongside Yui Kiyohara’s debut Remerging Every Night which first screened at Berlinale.
Girard’s debut Through The Night is developed from her Oscar-nominated short A Sister (2020) and will premiere at Venice before heading to San Sebastian.
The...
Films from Jean-Luc Godard, Delphine Girard and Bas Devos will screen in San Sebastian International Film Festival’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, a strand of the festival free of style or length constraints.
Godard’s posthumous short film Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’, which premiered in Cannes, will open the strand alongside Yui Kiyohara’s debut Remerging Every Night which first screened at Berlinale.
Girard’s debut Through The Night is developed from her Oscar-nominated short A Sister (2020) and will premiere at Venice before heading to San Sebastian.
The...
- 8/24/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the momentous burst of rebellion against the Iranian regime prompted by the death of Mahsa Amini are reverberating profoundly at the Cannes Film Festival.
At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve paid tribute to the war’s victims by reciting a poem from Ukrainian poet Lessia Oukraïnka, solemnly declaring: “I no longer have either happiness or freedom, only one hope remains to me: to return one day to my beautiful Ukraine.” One year ago, Cannes got off to an emotional start with remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On the industry side, official Russian delegations and companies with ties to the government are again banned from participating in the Cannes Marché du Film. And Iran’s Farabi Film Foundation, the top national film entity which has been attending the market for years, has not been allowed to book a stand,...
At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve paid tribute to the war’s victims by reciting a poem from Ukrainian poet Lessia Oukraïnka, solemnly declaring: “I no longer have either happiness or freedom, only one hope remains to me: to return one day to my beautiful Ukraine.” One year ago, Cannes got off to an emotional start with remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On the industry side, official Russian delegations and companies with ties to the government are again banned from participating in the Cannes Marché du Film. And Iran’s Farabi Film Foundation, the top national film entity which has been attending the market for years, has not been allowed to book a stand,...
- 5/18/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The lineup for the 2023 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at Cannes has been announced. See also the lineup of the Official Selection and Critics' Week.Creatura.Feature FILMSThe Goldman Case (Cédric Kahn)Agra (Kanu Behl)The Other Laurens (Claude Schmitz)Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Thien An Pham)Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani) Blazh (Ilya Povolotsky)She Is Conann (Bertrand Mandico)Creatura (Elena Martín Gimeno)Déserts (Faouzi Bensaïdi)In Flames (Zarrar Kahn) Légua (Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra)The Book of Solutions (Michel Gondry)Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam)Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli)The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something has Passed (Joanna Arnow)The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)A Prince (Pierre Creton)A Song Sung Blue (Zihan Geng)In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo)Short FILMSThe House Is on Fire, Might as Well Get Warm (Mouloud Aït Liotna)A Storm Inside (Clément Pérot)The Birthday Party (Francesco Sossai...
- 4/18/2023
- MUBI
“My aim is to go beyond the films scouted at co-production markets and residencies,” Rej explained.
In his first year as artistic director of Cannes Directors’ Fornight, Julien Rejl explains why it is important to him the section has its own unqiue identity, what that identity is and why he made sure to say “non” to films refused by the Official Selection.
In your first year, what did you want to change and what aspects of the Directors’ Fortnight was it important that you take steps to preserve?
My aim is to go beyond the films that are expected in Cannes,...
In his first year as artistic director of Cannes Directors’ Fornight, Julien Rejl explains why it is important to him the section has its own unqiue identity, what that identity is and why he made sure to say “non” to films refused by the Official Selection.
In your first year, what did you want to change and what aspects of the Directors’ Fortnight was it important that you take steps to preserve?
My aim is to go beyond the films that are expected in Cannes,...
- 4/18/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup has been unveiled ahead of this year’s festival.
Set for May 16 through May 27, the Directors’ Fortnight will debut 20 feature films and 10 short films this year.
Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” is the opening night selection. The film centers on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman who was convicted of multiple armed robberies and later murdered.
Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s “In Our Day” will conclude the festival. The feature stars Kim Minhee and Ki Joobong in parallel stories of cat owners grappling with their felines’ respective mortality.
Directors’ Fortnight highlights also include Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s French comedy “The Book of Solutions,” starring Pierre Niney as a filmmaker with writer’s block. The film marks “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Gondry’s first feature in seven years.
“Good Time” director of photography Sean Price William makes his directorial feature...
Set for May 16 through May 27, the Directors’ Fortnight will debut 20 feature films and 10 short films this year.
Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” is the opening night selection. The film centers on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman who was convicted of multiple armed robberies and later murdered.
Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s “In Our Day” will conclude the festival. The feature stars Kim Minhee and Ki Joobong in parallel stories of cat owners grappling with their felines’ respective mortality.
Directors’ Fortnight highlights also include Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s French comedy “The Book of Solutions,” starring Pierre Niney as a filmmaker with writer’s block. The film marks “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Gondry’s first feature in seven years.
“Good Time” director of photography Sean Price William makes his directorial feature...
- 4/18/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar has unveiled its 2023 lineup, which will feature new films from arthouse favorites Hong Sang-soo, Michel Gondry and Cédric, Kahn as well as a broad selection from up-and-coming international directors.
Gondry’s French-language comedy The Book of Solutions, the first film in seven years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep director, is a clear Fortnight highlight this year. Franz and Yves Saint Laurent star Pierre Niney plays the lead as a director dealing with a creative block. The project was a hot seller for Kinology at the Cannes market last year.
The phenomenally-productive Hong Sangsoo will close this year’s Fortnight section with In Our Day, a drama starring Kim Minhee as a 40-something woman temporarily living at the home of a friend and Ki Joobong as a 70-something man living alone. Both receive visitors, eat noodles, and talk.
Gondry’s French-language comedy The Book of Solutions, the first film in seven years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep director, is a clear Fortnight highlight this year. Franz and Yves Saint Laurent star Pierre Niney plays the lead as a director dealing with a creative block. The project was a hot seller for Kinology at the Cannes market last year.
The phenomenally-productive Hong Sangsoo will close this year’s Fortnight section with In Our Day, a drama starring Kim Minhee as a 40-something woman temporarily living at the home of a friend and Ki Joobong as a 70-something man living alone. Both receive visitors, eat noodles, and talk.
- 4/18/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After Cannes Film Festival announced its main lineup last week, the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week sidebars have unveiled their slates. Now in its 55th edition, Directors’ Fortnight features Hong Sangsoo’s second feature of the year, In Our Day, while Sean Price Williams’ The Sweet East, Michel Gondry’s The Book of Solutions, Bertrand Mandico’s She Is Conann, and more.
“The Directors’ Fortnight was born when a community of directors came together with the desire to create an independent space that would encourage the emergence of free filmmaking regardless of geographical provenance or any other limiting criteria,” said Julien Rejl, Artistic Director of the Directors’ Fortnight. “At the heart of the creation of the Directors’ Fortnight was the singular quality of a work of art and the impossibility of pigeonholing it. We have chosen to present 30 films to you which, through their own unique language, embody a spirit...
“The Directors’ Fortnight was born when a community of directors came together with the desire to create an independent space that would encourage the emergence of free filmmaking regardless of geographical provenance or any other limiting criteria,” said Julien Rejl, Artistic Director of the Directors’ Fortnight. “At the heart of the creation of the Directors’ Fortnight was the singular quality of a work of art and the impossibility of pigeonholing it. We have chosen to present 30 films to you which, through their own unique language, embody a spirit...
- 4/18/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This otherworldly doc layers the stories of idiosyncratic individuals who have chosen to live on the Kola peninsula
On the northern coast of the Russian Kola peninsula, bordering the infamously tempestuous Barents Sea, lie half-abandoned military bases, their mossy structures turning ghostly against the silver-grey winter sky. Looking more like a setting for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, the area hardly resembles an ideal place to put down roots. Nevertheless, Ilya Povolotsky’s otherworldly documentary shows a small, idiosyncratic community striving to lead meaningful lives in this inhospitable environment.
While these unusual souls hail from different backgrounds, they all appear to be living outside the contemporary course of history. Former marine Bardak spends his autumnal years squatting in a rundown building even though his peers opted to move to the cities. Middle-aged Alexander operates a quasi-water bus service, a métier he hopes his teenage daughter Masha will inherit. Still, the young...
On the northern coast of the Russian Kola peninsula, bordering the infamously tempestuous Barents Sea, lie half-abandoned military bases, their mossy structures turning ghostly against the silver-grey winter sky. Looking more like a setting for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, the area hardly resembles an ideal place to put down roots. Nevertheless, Ilya Povolotsky’s otherworldly documentary shows a small, idiosyncratic community striving to lead meaningful lives in this inhospitable environment.
While these unusual souls hail from different backgrounds, they all appear to be living outside the contemporary course of history. Former marine Bardak spends his autumnal years squatting in a rundown building even though his peers opted to move to the cities. Middle-aged Alexander operates a quasi-water bus service, a métier he hopes his teenage daughter Masha will inherit. Still, the young...
- 2/14/2022
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Nikolay N Viktorov’s first documentary roams similar territory to Ilya Povolotsky's 2019’s debut Froth, although considerably more coolly, as he offers a portrait of Russia’s far north. It's a place that time and the rest of civilisation seem to have largely forgotten about and where being on the wrong side of the law can be more profitable than the right side.
At its heart is Ilya, who seems almost too big for the place. He’s a fast-talker, with energy to burn who spends his off-hours writing poetry of sorts and his on-hours knocking off metal dumpsters with his two friends for scrap - where there's muck there's brass, after all.
Friends is, in fact, a rather generous term for the men who help him with one, Vitalik, in particular, being subjected to such squirm-inducing levels of bullying by Ilya that I imagine it was tough for Viktorov,...
At its heart is Ilya, who seems almost too big for the place. He’s a fast-talker, with energy to burn who spends his off-hours writing poetry of sorts and his on-hours knocking off metal dumpsters with his two friends for scrap - where there's muck there's brass, after all.
Friends is, in fact, a rather generous term for the men who help him with one, Vitalik, in particular, being subjected to such squirm-inducing levels of bullying by Ilya that I imagine it was tough for Viktorov,...
- 6/25/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Directors Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández were the winners of the Idfa Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary with “In a Whisper,” a film that focuses on two emigrated Cuban filmmakers reunited by their passion for film, friendship and freedom.
The jury, which comprised Claire Simon, Mila Turajlić, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gaston Kaboré, and Rima Mismar, described the film as “a magical, original, and risk-taking cinematic endeavor,” which embodied “a refreshing expression of womanhood; an ode to loss; a celebration of friendship, will, and vulnerability; a reclaiming of hope and passion; and a piercingly honest cinematic dialogue.”
Iranian docmaker Mehrdad Oskouei won the award for directing for his subtly devastating film “Sunless Shadows,” which focuses on young women serving time for the murder of a male relative. The jury was very impressed by the director’s “approach to a pressing subject which he skilfully turns into a metaphor for a whole country.
The jury, which comprised Claire Simon, Mila Turajlić, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gaston Kaboré, and Rima Mismar, described the film as “a magical, original, and risk-taking cinematic endeavor,” which embodied “a refreshing expression of womanhood; an ode to loss; a celebration of friendship, will, and vulnerability; a reclaiming of hope and passion; and a piercingly honest cinematic dialogue.”
Iranian docmaker Mehrdad Oskouei won the award for directing for his subtly devastating film “Sunless Shadows,” which focuses on young women serving time for the murder of a male relative. The jury was very impressed by the director’s “approach to a pressing subject which he skilfully turns into a metaphor for a whole country.
- 11/27/2019
- by Damon Wise and Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
UK director Lucy Parker’s investigative work Solidarity wins best first appearance prize for debut features.
Cuban directors Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández’s joint autobiographical documentary In A Whisper has won the €20,000 Idfa award for best feature-length documentary.
In the film, the two filmmakers and childhood friends, who lost contact with one another after they emigrated to different countries in Europe, reconnect via video letters and share their experiences in their adoptive homes.
The feature-length competition jury consisted of filmmakers Claire Simon, Mila Turajlić, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gaston Kaboré, and Rima Mismar.
They praised In A Whisper as a...
Cuban directors Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández’s joint autobiographical documentary In A Whisper has won the €20,000 Idfa award for best feature-length documentary.
In the film, the two filmmakers and childhood friends, who lost contact with one another after they emigrated to different countries in Europe, reconnect via video letters and share their experiences in their adoptive homes.
The feature-length competition jury consisted of filmmakers Claire Simon, Mila Turajlić, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gaston Kaboré, and Rima Mismar.
They praised In A Whisper as a...
- 11/27/2019
- by 1100380¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
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