The Gentle One (2017)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The soft |
| Original title | Кроткая / Krotkaya |
| Country of production | France , Germany |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 143 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sergei Loznitsa |
| script | Sergei Loznitsa |
| production | Marianne Slot |
| music | Vladimir Golovnitsky |
| camera | Oleg Mutu |
| cut | Danielius Kokanauskis |
| occupation | |
| |
The gentle ( Russian Кроткая , Krotkaya ) is after Mein Glück (2010) and Im Nebel (2012) the third feature film by the Ukrainian screenwriter and director Sergei Loznitsa , who was inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella " The Gentle ".
action
Alyonka works at a gas station in a small Russian town. Her husband is in a Siberian prison. She sends him parcels regularly. One day one of the parcels comes back with the note "Back to the sender". The woman is turned back at the post office: she does not find out why the package was returned and what happened to her husband. Alyonka decides to travel to Siberia to personally deliver the package to her husband. The prison turns out to be an impregnable fortress in which arbitrariness and abuse of power prevail. There she gets caught in the mill of bureaucracy. The prison officials refuse to provide information, refuse applications without explanation, and harass visitors for asking questions. Alyonka defies violence and humiliation. However, their persistent search for truth and justice turns into martyrdom.
background
The gentle is a co-production by Marianne Slot and Carine Leblanc ( Slot Machine , France), Gunnar Dedio ( LOOKSfilm , Germany), Arte France Cinéma, GP cinema company (Russia), Studio Uljana Kim (Lithuania), Wild at Art & Graniet Film (Netherlands) and Solar Media Entertainment (Ukraine) in collaboration with Wild Bunch , Haut et Court, Potemkine Films, Atoms & Void and Film Angels Studio.
The film was funded by Eurimages , Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Aide à la Coproduction Franco-Allemande, Center National du Cinéma et de l'image Animée, Institut Français , Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM), Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Netherlands Film Fund, Netherlands Film Production Incentive, National Film Center of Latvia, Riga Film Fund, Lithuanian Film Center, Lithuanian National Radio and Television and Creative Europe Program - Media of the European Union.
The gentle celebrated its world premiere on May 25, 2017 in the official competition of the 70th Cannes International Film Festival . The German premiere was in June 2017 at the Munich Film Festival , the German theatrical release on May 3, 2018.
criticism
The critics who saw the film in Cannes agreed that The Gentle should be interpreted as a parable on the relationship between Ukraine and Russia . Dostoyevsky's novella is about an oppressed woman and her tormentor. The unanimous opinion is that the woman in the film stands for Ukraine, the tormentor for Russia.
Susanne Ostwald wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung : “The Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa brings his country's conflict with Russia to the screen with a wild polemic and bitter parable. (...) an interesting and eloquent testimony to the social penetration and exaggerated presentation of the conflict between the two countries. "
Carsten Baumgardt added in his criticism of film releases : “The parable-like drama The Gentle is a harshly naturalistic, uncompromisingly unyielding social accusation that suddenly turns into theatrical-surreal madness towards the end - but that's no wonder, because you hardly stay with this Russia something else than to lose faith in the system and then lose your mind. "
Jay Weissburg, critic of the trade journal Variety , sees Russia on the brink in the film: “ The gentle one is Loznitsa's exhausted and exhausting cri de cœur. His portrait of a Russia, a hundred years after the revolution, shows a civilian population that collapsed a long time ago and whose citizens are too shattered to care. "
Some film journalists felt reminded of the narrative worlds of Kafka and Gogol. Alexandra Seibel wrote in the Austrian daily Kurier : “Kafka sends his regards when a woman sets off to visit her husband in prison. The representatives of the authorities turn out to be liars, every bus trip turns into a gauntlet. In the end Loznitsa increases his infernal realism to a carnivalesque feverish dream with a cruel ending: The Russian soul, it is a black hole. "
Leslie Felperin, author of the film industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter , said: “ The gentle (Krotkaya) of Belarusian- born director Sergei Loznitsa looks deep into the Russian soul and finds infinite blackness there. (...) Although there are many echoes of the fiction of Nikolai Gogol , Franz Kafka and others, as well as of mythical journeys into the underworld, Loznitsa's approach is uniquely cinematic ... "
Web links
- Homepage of Die Gentle
- The Gentle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The gentle one on the LOOKSfilm website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for the gentle . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 177326 / K).
- ↑ Krotkaya. In: festival-cannes.com. Retrieved December 13, 2018 (French).
- ↑ The gentle one. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on December 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Susanne Ostwald: Like lambs to the slaughter . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 25, 2017 ( online at nzz.ch [accessed December 13, 2018]).
- ↑ Carsten Baumgardt: The gentle one. In: film starts . Retrieved December 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Jay Weissberg: Film Review: 'A Gentle Creature' . In: Variety . May 25, 2017 (English, online at Variety.com [accessed December 13, 2018]): “A Gentle Creature” is Loznitsa's cri de cœur, exhausted and exhausting. His portrait of Russia at the Revolution's centenary depicts a civil society that collapsed long ago and whose citizens are too shattered to care. "
- ↑ Alexandra Seibel: Cannes summary: Competition films about people without pity . In: Courier . May 27, 2017 ( online at Kurier.at [accessed December 13, 2018]).
- ↑ Leslie Felperin: 'A Gentle Creature' ('Krotkaya'): Film Review | Cannes 2017 . In: The Hollywood Reporter . May 25, 2017 (English, online at Hollywoodreporter.com [accessed December 13, 2018]): “A Gentle Creature (Krotkaya) from Belarus-born director Sergei Loznitsa peers deep into the Russian soul and finds there an unfathomable blackness. (...) Although there are piercing echoes here of absurdist fiction by Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka and others, as well as mythical journeys to the underworld, Loznitsa's approach is uniquely cinematic ... "