Section: Spectrum

YOUTH

YOUTH

Dmitry Davydov
RU, 2023, 88 Min

Vasya Nikolaev has gambled away his life in the big city. Wife, two children, and still back to the Yakut village. Here he is known, or not anymore — a life in the poverty trap, and that at minus 56 degrees, between drunkenness and brawling, jail and small pleasures. One of the best examples of blossoming Yakut cinema, this snowy tragicomedy about loneliness and restlessness brilliantly combines Yakut rock, magical realism and folk tales.

#feature #tragedy #fantasy

The story of a loser who is trying to return to his native village was filmed by Yakut director Dmitry Davydov at extremely low temperatures, but with extremely high output. The world of YOUTH is a snowy looking glass, a space in which the desperate situation of people and things is brought to the point of comic absurdity. The director constantly plays with various kinds of distortions and omissions: the protagonists are often shown either as a reflection in a mirror or as a shadow on the wall. There are magical elements present. In one episode, Vasya tames a fly that miraculously survived in an old refrigerator; in another, he and his classmate imagine the devil pushing them in the back. The film even mocks the success of Yakut cinema, which in recent years has been constantly present at international festivals. «Yakut cinema is a disaster!» says the protagonist to his friend. «Name one good Yakut film!» Oh Vasya, you are really behind the times.

Text: Ksenia Reutova

Drehbuch
Dmitrii Davydov
Kamera
Nikolay Petrov
Ton
Innokentiy Sivzev
Schnitt
Stepan Burnashev
Musik
Andrey Guryanov
Darsteller
Anatoly Struchkov, Pavel Chenyanov, Albert Alexeev
Produzent
Dmitrii Davydov
Produktion
Bonfire Production
Dmitry Davydov

Dmitry Davydov - Dmitrii Davydov was born in the village of Amga of the Republic of Sakha(Yakutia), Russia in 1983. Is a representative of a small northern people and an indigenous filmmaker. For 16 years he used to work at school, he worked as a teacher, psychologist, and organizer of children's after-class activities, and later on, he became the headmaster of the local school.

Working at the school, he created a teenagers´ club; there they began to shoot different videos, small amateur video clips. At that time, Dmitry´s interest in filmmaking was raised. His intentions were to become a professional filmmaker.

Not having a cinematographic education, in 2014 he made a feature film Bonfire. In 2016, the film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.

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