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

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