28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The Halves
director: Alexandr Zarchikov
original title: Polovinki
year: 2015
running time: 95 min.
synopsis
The film’s main protagonist, Alexandr Zarchikov, works on a cargo ship transporting Japanese cars that have been cut in half to the Russian port city Vladivostok. There, the cars are reassembled and transporters take them away to their final destinations. Zarchikov decides to try working on the mainland, and joins one car on its journey through Siberia. His experience morphs into a meditative film essay, symbolically divided into two halves (sea and land), where he ponders his relationship with his motherland, religion, and nature, and tries to overcome his feelings of rootlessness.DETAIL:
“When I worked on a ship like this, we always got home quickly, safe and sound. Now, I don’t feel at home on a boat, nor on the island I was born, Sakhalin. Maybe by making this film, I’ll find my place.”
biography
A native of the Russian island of Sakhalin, Alexandr Zarchikov is a documentary filmmaker, but has been most influenced by his work at sea. Before he became a filmmaker, he worked for many years as a sailor and later as a specialist in environmental issues. He has made a number of short documentaries, but due to a lack of opportunities has returned to working on a ship. The Halves is his feature-length directorial debut.more about film
director: | Alexandr Zarchikov |
producer: | Nikolay Bem, Jérémie Jorrand |
script: | Alexandr Zarchikov |
photography: | Alexandr Zarchikov, Arthur Sokolov |
editing: | Coralie van Rietschoten |
music: | Тщ тщ |
sound: | Nikolay Bem, Gilles Bénardeau |