More than a three-hour film, the only film by Marlen Khutsiev, released during the "dark" period of Soviet and then post-Soviet cinema. As they say the filming was initially carried out in several locations in 1987, but the project was released four years later. A middle-aged man is experiencing an existential crisis, wandering, either as a man or as a ghost, somewhere between the present and the past.
At one point the hero spontaneously begins to sell off various, seemingly valuable property, although just a minute earlier he believed that someone simply had the wrong phone number. He leaves the house and wanders somewhere. Events from days long past appear before his eyes. Then he again finds himself on deserted streets, periodically meeting various seemingly familiar and, on the other hand, completely unfamiliar people, periodically also exchanging a phrase or two with random people he meets. In another episode he orders a now unclaimed tune from a band performing on a street stage. The surrounding townsfolk disperse dissatisfied, a young guy comes out onto the stage, probably representing him in his youth, and dances with the girl. There is no one left around anymore. A moment later, the hero continues to look at the same scene, but the situation changes - a completely different couple is now in the same place, fallen leaves and rickety fences appear around, everything looks forgotten and abandoned. At the end of the dance, all three slowly follow somewhere along a dark and deserted street.
Actually the whole picture is an alternation of this kind of elements, a semi-philosophical, extremely unhurried parable about life, death, choices made / missed, and lengthy conversations with oneself. The message as a whole becomes more or less clear before reaching the middle, but the dense narrative is still far from complete. In genera, it is a rather unique and, perhaps, the most extraordinary work of the director, which is worth watching only in a special mood, or in the case of some craving for something near surreal, but at the same time, unlike the previously mentioned films in particular, devoid of different deliberate elements of that time.
At one point the hero spontaneously begins to sell off various, seemingly valuable property, although just a minute earlier he believed that someone simply had the wrong phone number. He leaves the house and wanders somewhere. Events from days long past appear before his eyes. Then he again finds himself on deserted streets, periodically meeting various seemingly familiar and, on the other hand, completely unfamiliar people, periodically also exchanging a phrase or two with random people he meets. In another episode he orders a now unclaimed tune from a band performing on a street stage. The surrounding townsfolk disperse dissatisfied, a young guy comes out onto the stage, probably representing him in his youth, and dances with the girl. There is no one left around anymore. A moment later, the hero continues to look at the same scene, but the situation changes - a completely different couple is now in the same place, fallen leaves and rickety fences appear around, everything looks forgotten and abandoned. At the end of the dance, all three slowly follow somewhere along a dark and deserted street.
Actually the whole picture is an alternation of this kind of elements, a semi-philosophical, extremely unhurried parable about life, death, choices made / missed, and lengthy conversations with oneself. The message as a whole becomes more or less clear before reaching the middle, but the dense narrative is still far from complete. In genera, it is a rather unique and, perhaps, the most extraordinary work of the director, which is worth watching only in a special mood, or in the case of some craving for something near surreal, but at the same time, unlike the previously mentioned films in particular, devoid of different deliberate elements of that time.
