Artdokfest. Woman and glacier

Film of the Lithuanian classic Audryus Stonis

In Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, in December 2016, the Artdokfest documentary festival will be held. Several films from the competitive program are shown on October 15–23 in Riga as part of the International Film Festival. Twice a week, the President of Artdokfest Vitaly Mansky tells at Medusa about all films participating in the competition. In this material, "Medusa" represents the painting "Woman and Glacier" by the Lithuanian director Audryus Stonis (2016).

The name of the Artdoxfest festival obliges us to present us in the competition program "Art" in its pure form. Here, of course, heavy artillery enters - the classics of the genre. We were just lucky that our many -year -old friend and comrade, Lithuanian director Audryus Stonis, finished the selection of Artdokfesta on his picture.

The luck also lies in the fact that we must strictly comply with the regulations of the festival, and the regulation states that, among other things, the film should be at least two -thirds in Russian. This full -length picture was shot without text, the main character pronounces throughout the picture one phrase - in Lithuanian. But in the end, another hero appears, who pronounces two phrases - in Russian. Thus, two -thirds are a Russian -speaking picture, and I am madly happy with this circumstance.

“Woman and Glacier” is an absolute cinematic work that rarely happens in documentary cinema. Audrusus Stonis is the leader of modern poetic cinema in Europe. His almost debut film-he was then 20 years old-received the European Oscar, and since that time, every picture of Stonis met expectations. These are always very powerful poetic phenomena.

This picture is meditative, and I would even like to cancel our agreement on the shows of the trailer, because he will not explain anything. It is better now to just share two circumstances about the groan, which will characterize the author and lure the viewer to the cinema.

First. Lithuania 20 years ago decided to build a pavilion for the first time at the EXPO World Exhibition. At the level of the Cabinet of Ministers, they decided to make the film “Flying over Lithuania” for the Pavilion and invited a groan for this. A fairly significant budget was allocated for such an important state business. He came to a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, and there they began to discuss what objects of the Republic of Lithuania the director should fly in his 13-minute film. When the meeting was over, a sheet with a list of newly built factories, erected schools, bridges, clinics and other obvious achievements of the national capitalist economy was given to Stonis. Stonis thanked and, already about to leave, threw the phrase: just keep in mind that if you follow the list, we will fly for seven seconds over each object. The result of this was a wonderful picture, where a certain contemplator, a certain angel fly over a beautiful Lithuania - and we see hills, swamps, waking up ducks and storks emerging from Lithuanian fogs. The director made the picture that was considered necessary, a film that poetized a beautiful land.

The second interesting circumstance - I was recently in Vilnius with friends at a wedding. We walked with an Audryus in the city and went into its installation - it is located in the current monastery in the monastic cell. I think all this will be interested in you and will allow you to devote one evening of your life to plunge into the film of Stonis, into the world of a woman and a glacier. In the world of a picture shot in the mountains of Kazakhstan, telling about man and nature, about two forces and about two energies, which, on the one hand, destroy each other, and on the other, they cannot exist without each other.

PS about other films from the competitive program "Artdocfest" can be found here .