- year : 2020
- country : Russia
- timing : 21:23'
- genre : documentary
- producer : Mikhail Gorobchuk
written by Mikhail Gorobchuk
produced by Ekaterina Vizgalova, Irina Kalinina, Vladislav Shuvalov
DoP Mikhail Gorobchuk
music by Domenico Scarlatti, J. S. Bach
sound by Dmitry Nazarov
editor Mikhail Gorobchuk
Our house becomes shrouded in the silence of night. It grows long shadows accentuated by the random sparks of the kerosene lamp. For little Stesha, the darkness becomes a way into another world that is both frightening and fascinating. Fragments of elusive memories, voices and shimmers of light – these are the flickering sensations of childhood, and they stay with us forever.
- Visions du Réel - Festival international de cinéma Nyon (2020, Switzerland, Nyon)
- FeKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival (2020, Slovenia, Ljubljana)
- Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de La Plata FestiFreak (2020, Argentina, Mar del Plata)
- Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (2020, Switzerland, Winterthur)
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) (2020, United Kingdom, York)
- accordi @ DISACCORDI International Short Film Festival (2020, Italy, Naples)
- EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (2020, Poland, Torun)
- Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People (2020, Greece, Pyrgos)
- International Documentary Film Festival “Artdokfest” (2020, Russia, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Latvia, Riga)
- Russian National Award in Non-Fiction Films and Television "Laurel branch", Best Art Film (2020, Russia, Moscow)
- Russian Film Festival "Window to Europe", Special Prize (2020, Russia, Vyborg)
- Tampere Film Festival, Best Documentary (2021, Finland, Tampere)
- ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival, Special Mention (2021, Croatia, Zagreb)
- International Documentary Film Festival DOKer (2021, Russia, Moscow)
- Faito DOC festival, Best Short Documentary, “Acutezza dello sguardo” Award (2021, Italy, Vico Equense)
- Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival (2021, Portugal, Viana do Castelo)
- International Film Forum "Zolotoy Vityaz" (Golden knight) (2021, Russia, Sevastopol)
- FILMETS Badalona Film Festival (2021, Spain, Badalona)
- Korca International Short Film Festival (2021, Albania, Korça)
- MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival (2021, Macedonia, Skopje)
- Independent Russian-American Documentary Film Festival, Award In the category WOW (2021, United State, New York)
- ONE SHOT International Short Film Festival, Best Short Film (2021, Armenia, Yerevan)
- DEA OPEN AIR International Film Festival (2021, Albania, Tirana)
- Deep Fried Film Festival (2021, UK, Cotebridge)
- Kraljevski filmski festival, Special Jury Award (2021, Serbia, Kraljevo)
- FIKE - Évora International Short-Film Festival, Honorable Mention (2021, Portugal, Evora)
- Moscow International Film Festival "Let's Live" (2021, Russia, Moscow)
- International Documentary Film Festival "Flahertiana" (2021, Russia, Perm)
- Open Documentary Film Festival "Russia" (2021, Russia, Yekaterinburg)
- OFF CINEMA International Documentary Film Festival (2021, Poland, Poznan)
- UK Film Festival London (2021, UK, London)
- Desenzano Film Festival, Best Documentary Award: "For the poetic narration capable of capturing the intimacy of everyday fragments" (2021, Italy, Brescia)
- Bogotá Short Film Festival (2021, Colombia, Bogota)
- FIDBA International Documentary Film Festival (2021, Argentina, Buenos Aires)
- DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival (2021, Azerbaijan, Baku)
- International Short Film Festival "VISION" (2021, Russia, Kemerovo)
- International Festival of Films and TV Programs "Radonezh" (2021, Russia, Moscow)
- Open Documentary Film Festival "Siberia" (2021, Russia, Omsk)
- Minimalen Short Film Festival (2021, Norway, Trondheim)
- Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival (2021, India, Madurai)
- Russian National Auteur Short Film Festival “Artkino”, Best Documentary (2021, Russia, Moscow)
- Evenings of Russian Cinema in Bordeaux (In Ciné Véritas Europe), Best Documentary (2021, France, Bordeaux)
- Social Justice Film Festival (2021, India, Chennai)
- Interregional Award in the field of cinema "Altyn Talink" (Golden Plate), Nominee (2021, Russia, Kazan)
- International Film Festival ZOOM – ZBLIZENIA (2022, Poland, Jelenia Góra)
- Hermitage DocFest (2022, Russia, St. Petersburg)
- Filmfest Bremen (2022, Germany, Bremen)
- Akbank Short Film Festival (2022, Turkey, Istanbul)
- NIKA National Film Award for 2021, Longlist (2022, Russia, Moscow)
- International Sretensky Film Festival "Vstrecha", Best Documentary (2022, Russia, Obninsk)
- ZERO PLUS International Film Festival (2022, Russia, Tyumen)
- Veche Bell International Orthodox Film Festival (2022, Russia, Krasnodar)
- Festival del Cinema di Cefalù (2023, Italy, Palermo, Cefalù)
Director’s statement
When my daughter Stefania was born, I started to film her constantly almost from a moment of her birth. I understand nothing remains as a rule in one’s memory from early infancy (about under three years of age), so I wanted to preserve this part of her life for my daughter. It comes out, this was the first film with her participation - "Katya and Stefania. A Portrait in Interior". Years later, my daughter would wish to look at herself as a baby and, of course, it is unlikely that memory would react somehow to it. But if some images somehow come from the past, then it would not be the visual reality in a proper sense of the word. As a result at some moment I had got an idea to try to visualize of how we see the world in childhood, an experience, which in later life exists somewhere at the bottom of our memory in a form of snatches of conversations, flashes of light and shadows. In another word, I decided to try to provide my daughter with her future memories. I started working out a visual solution that would correspond to this task. I made a decision that there would be nothing concrete, only silhouettes and shadows – black and white. I tried to limit using the color - only yellow (warm) and blue (cold). Relatively speaking, I wanted to present reality at a "zero degree" level (using Roland Barthes’s image of Albert Camus manner), simplify it as possible, discard all unnecessary details, leave only spots and lines. In this I was inspired by images of Yuri Norstein's animation "A Tale of Fairy Tales", by rhythm in the works of animator Jerzy Kucia, by mood and atmosphere of Andrey Tarkovsky’s films "The Mirror" and "Ivan's Childhood" (episodes of dreams). As for the plot construction, it was obvious for me, it could not be linear and sequential. I wished to create an intricate labyrinth, where memories have their own way of development, scenes and fragments cling to each other on some associative basis, where blur and sound guide the plot. In practical terms, the main difficulty for me was, perhaps, to imagine and find the environment I needed in a role of document. By genre, I would define my film as documentary fantasy.
ABOUT THE FILM DIRECTOR:
Mikhail Gorobchuk was born on 04.06.1988 in Novokuznetsk, Russia. In 2010 graduated from Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), the Faculty of Cinematography. In 2007 he received the President's grant for talented youth. In 2013 he received the National Award in the field of documentary film and television "Laurel Branch" in the category "Best professional cinematographer".
FILMOGRAPHY:
2020 - "Shadows of Your Childhood", documentary
2018 - "Katya and Stephanie. Portrait in the Interior", documentary
2017 - "Janker", documentary
2015 - "Idee fixe", animation
2013 - "The Cuckoo", animation
2012 - "The Breath Of The Tundra", documentary