Silent souls
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Silent souls |
| Original title | Овсянки |
| Country of production | Russia |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alexei Fedorchenko |
| script | Denis Ossokin |
| production |
Igor Mishin Mary Nazari |
| music | Andrei Karassev |
| camera | Mikhail Krichman |
| cut | Sergei Ivanov |
| occupation | |
| |
Stille Seelen (original title: Russian Овсянки / Owsjanki , in German: Ammern ; English-language festival title Silent Souls ) is a fictional film by Russian director Alexei Fedorschenko from 2010.
The film, described by Fedorschenko as an "erotic drama", is based on the story of Ovsyanki by his friend, author Denis Ossokin. The focus is on two men who, following a custom of the Finnish-Ugric people of the Merja, commit the ritual burial of a woman.
The film premiered in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival . The English-language film title Silent Souls refers to a passage in the literary original: “The people are strange here, yes. Expressionless faces, like raw flatbreads. Hair and eyes of incomprehensible color. Deep, silent souls. Sexual abandonment. Passions don't boil. Frequent divorces, murders and suicides have no visible causes. "
action
Aist is a descendant of the Finnish-Ugric people of the Merja . He lives in Neja , Kostroma Oblast , and works as a photographer and occasional writer. Aist buys a pair of Ammern only to be asked a little later by his employer and friend, the paper manufacturer Miron, for help with the funeral of his younger wife Tanja. This should be done according to the Merja burial rites. Aist and Miron prepare Tanja's corpse accordingly and wash it with vodka . They also braid colorful twine into Tanja's pubic hair, as is the Merja tradition shortly before the wedding.
The two men set off by car with the corpse wrapped in a woolen blanket and the cage with the two birds. The destination is a river bank thousands of kilometers away, which Miron and Tanja once visited on their honeymoon. On the drive through the northern Volga region , the elderly widower Aist traditionally provides information about intimate details from his marriage. Aist himself also remembers Tanja, for whom he felt a platonic love. He also remembers his childhood and the time with his bitter father.
Arrived at the river, both Tanja's body cremated in a free cremation. Then their ashes are scattered in the river.
Reviews
Silent Souls premiered on September 4, 2010 at the 67th Venice Film Festival, where it received praise from international critics and was one of the favorites for the main prize.
Susanne Ostwald ( Neue Zürcher Zeitung ) rated the “elegiac film” as “award-winning” . Owsjanki appears “at first glance to be primarily ethnologically curious cinema from a remote corner of the world. But in fact it is a touching exploration of the power of love ” . Michael Althen ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) remarked “some overly poetically desolate settings” , but the film has “a quirky sense of humor” .
Alexei Fedorschenko himself spoke of the fact that he was primarily interested in making the film “the shock of cultures” and “what traces another culture leaves behind when they mix”. Ovsyanki is a fiction. "In every fiction there is room for the imagination and perhaps even more here than in other films, if one regards Ovsyanki as a fairy tale," says Fedorschenko.
Awards
Cinematographer Michail Kritschman was awarded the Osella Technology Prize at the 2011 Venice Film Festival . The film also won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Premio Padre Nazareno Taddei at the festival . In the same year Stille Seelen received the directing and screenwriting award at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata . In 2011, the Russian film award Nika followed in the script and film music categories with three further nominations (film, camera, young talent award - film composer Andrei Karassjow).
Web links
- Profile at labiennale.org (English)
- Information from the Swiss distributor trigon-film
- Owsjanki in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Interview at aif.ru, August 30, 2010 (Russian; accessed September 11, 2010)
- ↑ Interview with Alexei Fedorschenko on Radio Liberty , September 2, 2010 (Russian; accessed September 12, 2010)
- ↑ cf. AFP : In Venice, Russian, Chilean films favored for Golden Lion . September 10, 2010, 5:33 PM GMT (accessed September 11, 2010 via LexisNexis Business )
- ↑ cf. Susanne Ostwald: A film for Quentin . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, September 8, 2010, p. 49
- ↑ cf. Althen, Michael: In the realm of the awakening queens . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 6, 2010, No. 206, p. 29
- ↑ cf. Video contribution ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at arte.tv, September 5, 2010 (accessed on September 11, 2010)
