Aleksey POPOGREBSKY Алексей ПОПОГРЕБСКИЙ Alekseï POPOGREBSKI   Russia, 2009, 124 mn  Colour, fiction

How I Ended This Summer ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Как я провел этим летом    Comment j'ai passé cet été  Kak ya provel etim letom

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Plot synopsis

Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on an Arctic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message, but can’t find the courage to tell Sergei until fear, lies and suspicions start poisoning the atmosphere...

Immersing us in the frozen wilds of the Russian Arctic, writer/director Alexei Popogrebsky makes an impressive addition to the canon of films about man’s extraordinary ability to cope with harsh nature and extreme isolation. Young Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) arrives at a remote research station for a summer of adventure under the tutelage of the wise and crusty Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis), whose multi-year tour of duty is coming to an end. Misplaced confidence and youthful immaturity lead to a string of potentially deadly deceptions. The deliberate pace of life in the Arctic, combined with the disorienting round-the-clock sunlight, sets the stage for a thriller infused with equal parts psychological trauma and physical endurance. Winner of three Silver Bears (for both lead actors and cinematography) at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
(http://www.newdirectors.org/2010/category/russia/)

 

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Commentaries and bibliography

Signs of the Everyday in Post-Soviet Cinema, Liliia NEMCHENKO, kinokultura.com, 2011

Aleksei Popogrebskii : How I Ended This Summer (Kak a provel etim letom, 2010), Mark LIPOVETSKY, Tatyana MIKHAILOVA, kinokultura.com, 2010

 

Extract of the interview of Aleksey POPOGREBSKY published by the Russian magazine : Action, www.kinometro.ru

–Why did you choose Chukotka as the setting for your new movie? Did you consider this polar station as a specific place on the map of the world or as just a conventional space within which your story could develop?
–Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by the diaries of polar explorers.Their ability to come to terms with the monstrous vastness of time and space still amazes me. I guess this story of two men living and working in complete isolation slowly developed inside me over the years. Having made two features, I felt I was ready for this challenge. It was clear that for this type of movie we had to merge completely with the actual, real setting. We did some research and found the Valkarkai polar station on the northern most tip of Chukotka. If you look at the map, it is literally the end of the world.We went there for location scouting in 2007 and fell in love with the place. Back home,a big surprise was waiting for me. I was proudly showing this place on the map to Sergey Puskepalis, who starred in my previous movie, SimpleThings, and for whom I wrote one of the two parts in the newscript.He looked at it and then stated matter-of-factly: ‘I lived near there for nine years’. This is true; when he was a child, his parents worked at a nuclear plant in Chukotka.Thanks to that, Sergey, who plays the seasoned polar meteorologist, fitted in completely with the local workers from the very start. Our plan was for the actors to wear their protagonists’ clothes, live their life and follow their routine a hundred percent of the time, which helped a lot.

–Is this story connected somehow with modern times and the present day? Or is it outside time as far as you are concerned?
–I write my own scripts, which for me is the most painful part of the whole process. It literally takes years for me to develop a story. In the process, the protagonists become part of me. Or, rather, parts of me take shape and develop into protagonists,who then take on a life of their own as particular human beings. I would never intentionally put elements of parable into my story. However, when the movie meets the audience, if the story grows beyond the concrete time and place in which it is set, and if it strikes some universal or personal chord in a viewer, for me this means that my mission has been accomplished.

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Selected in the following festivals :

- Russian film festival in Ajaccio, Ajaccio (France), 2012

- Days of Russian cinema in Limoges, Limoges (France), 2012

- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2012

- Sofia International Film Festival, Sofia (Bulgaria), 2011

- Hong-Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong (China), 2011

- Copenhagen International Film Festival / CPH PIX, Copenhagen (Denmark), 2011

- Russian Art Festival, Cannes (France), 2011

- The Dublin International Film Festival, Dublin (Ireland), 2011

- Festival Internacional de Cine, Mexico (Mexico), 2011

- Tromso International Film Festival : TIFF, Tromso (Norway), 2011

- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2011

- Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2011

- Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Moscow (Russia), 2011

- Seville European Film Festival : SEFF, Seville (Spain), 2011

- Göteborg International Film Festival, Göteborg (Sweden), 2011

- Bradford International Film Festival, Bradford (United Kingdom), 2011

- Russian film symposium. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA), 2011

- Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Mar del Plata (Argentina), 2010

- Yerevan International Film Festival "Golden Apricot", Yerevan (Armenia), 2010

- Russian Resurrection Film Festival, Different cities (Australia), 2010

- Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Sao Paulo (Brazil ), 2010

- Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto (Canada), 2010

- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2010

- Helsinki International Film Festival, Helsinki (Finland), 2010

- Arras International Film Festival, Arras (France), 2010

- Festival Cinémascience, Bordeaux (France), 2010

- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2010

- Festival of Central and Eastern Film , Wiesbaden (Germany), 2010

- Russische Filmwoche in Berlin, Berlin (Germany), 2010

- Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Thessaloniki (Greece), 2010

- Reykjavik International Film Festival, Reykjavik (Iceland ), 2010

- Haifa International Film Festival, Haifa (Israel), 2010

- Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema, Pesaro (Italy), 2010

- Busan International Film Festival : BIFF, Busan (Pusan) (Korea, South), 2010

- The International Cinematographers Film Festival “Manaki Brothers, Bitola (Macedonia), 2010

- Transilvania International Film Festival : TIFF, Cluj Napoca (Romania), 2010

- Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Moscow (Russia), 2010

- Window to Europe Film Festival, Vyborg, Vyborg (Russia), 2010

- Festival "Vivat Kino Rossii", St Petersburg (Russia), 2010

- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2010

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2010

- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2010

- Art Film Festival, Trencin (Slovakia), 2010

- Damascus International Film Festival, Damascus (Syria), 2010

- Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival, Antalya (Turkey), 2010

- Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds (United Kingdom), 2010

- The Times BFI London Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2010

- Russian Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2010

- New Directors New Films, New York (USA), 2010

- The New York Film Festival, New York (USA), 2010

- Russian Film Week in New York, New York (USA), 2010

- Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago (USA), 2010

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Photos and videos

 

Trailer sur teatr-russe.com

 

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