Section: Feature Film Competition

PLENNYY

CAPTIVE

Alexej Utschitel
Russia, Bulgaria, 2008, 80 Min
Rock Films

A Chechen village under Russian occupation. Alongside the numerous Chechen prisoners, there are occasional glimpses of fraternisation. One young peasant woman is cooking solyanka for a Russian soldier, her sister is making love to another one in the wash-house outside. The commander, anxious about a convoy that has broken down in a mountain pass, orders two young soldiers, Vovka and Rubakhin, to establish contact with the missing unit, and tells them to take along a Chechen prisoner familiar with the lay of the land. The film follows their laborious trek through jagged mountains. When the trio is crossing a river, Diamil, the young POW, makes a break for freedom. His attempt fails, but all the same the relationship between the two soldiers and their prisoner gradually becomes less hostile.

Based on Vladimir Makanin’s story “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, the film carries forward the more differentiated and conciliatory perspective on the Chechen conflict recently displayed by Nikita Mikhalkov’s 12 (2007) and Alexander Sokurov’s ALEXANDRA (2007).

Filmformat
35mm | Farbe / colour
Drehbuch
Wladimir Makanin, Timofeja Dekina
Kamera
Jurij Klimenko
Ton
Kirill Wasilenko
Schnitt
Elena Andrejewa, Gleb Nikulskij
Ausstattung
Andrej Wasin, Galina Dejewa, Mark Li
Musik
Leonid Desjatnikow
Darsteller
Iraklij Mzchalaja, Wjatscheslaw Grekunow, Petr Logatschew, Julija Peresild
Produzent
Alexej Utschitel
Produktion
Rock Films
Co-Produktion
Kamera Studio, Bulgaria National Film Center, Bulgaria
Kontakt
Rock Films
nab. Krjukova Kanala 12
190068 Sankt-Peterburg
Russia
Tel: +7.812.714 205 6
Fax: +7.495.981 765 4
info@rockfilms.ru
Alexej Utschitel

Alexej Utschitel - born 1951 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). A student at the Moscow VGIK until 1975, he then worked as a cameraman and director in the Leningrad Studio for Documentary Film. Since founding the production company ROCK in the early 1990s he has produced films by other directors as well as his own.

Movies
STO TYSJATSCH „JA“ (1978, doc)
PUSK. PORTRET ODNOGO SOBYTIJA (1979, doc)
AKZIJA (1983, doc)
PLANETA NATASCHA (1986, doc)
ROK (1988, doc)
OBWODNYJ KANAL (1991, doc)
BATTERFLJAJ (1993, doc)
MANIJA SCHISELI (1995)
ELITA (1997, doc)
DNJEWNIK JEGO SCHENY (2000)
PROGULKA (2003, Special Prize, Cottbus 2003)
KOSMOS KAK PREDTSCHUWSTWIJE (2005)