Pavel KOSTOMAROV Павел КОСТОМАРОВ Pavel KOSTOMAROV Aleksandr RASTORGUYEV Александр РАСТОРГУЕВ Aleksandr RASTORGOUEV   Russia, 2011, 81 mn  Colour, documentary

I Love You ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Я тебя люблю    Je t'aime  Ya tebya lyublyu

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Plot synopsis

In their movie I Love You, shot on the dividing line between drama and documentary, Kostomarov and Rastorguev have invented a new kind of cinema that exists without any auteur or director. The characters operate the camera by themselves, and they shoot material about themselves, while the auteurs of this project assist them and guide them in the right direction. This uncontrollable venture started life as a national competition and concluded as three stories about three characters, each of whomlives his own life and builds his own relationships, but towards the end their paths interweave and knit the action into a single whole. Shooting recently wrapped in the town of Rostov-on-the-Don and the auteurs are working on editing the movie.

A militia captain films his routine work and family. Once he leaves his camera in the car. The car is broken into and the camera ends up in the hands of three youngsters.
The teenagers from a working district enjoy their new toy. They film their life, empty
conversations, pointless work, wanderings about the neighborhood, dates and quarrels with girls.
Gradually the main component of their life – love – comes to the fore. Young cynicism and infantilism come in contact with the really important aspects of life,and the world of the young people is turned upside down.

 

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Commentaries and bibliography

Pavel Kostomarov and Aleksandr Rastorguev: I Love You (Ia tebia liubliu, 2011), Andrew CHAPMAN, kinokultura.com, 2011

 

An original portrait of young people in Russia, mostly amateurs who received cameras from the directors and help in filming their own life stories. A mosaic of everyday situations with unexpected camera angles revealing characters’ ordinary but also hidden lives.
Two young, dynamic voices from Russian film: that of D.O.P and director Pavel Kostomarov and that of documentary director Alexander Rastorguov are united in this modern experiment, in search of a new film language and new methods.
There are three stories of three young male friends from Rostov-on-Don. The authors were casted from fifty open-minded non-professionals who would not be scared to use a camera themselves and who could record their own lives while being totally natural. The directors have chosen those real life stories of people who were interlinked with one another and built up a mosaic of their life episodes, with love as the leitmotief. The result is a fascinating melodramatic story using the dynamics and language of YouTube. It also is an inexpensive movie of the collegial authorship that marks the contemporary era. According to the authors, this project is a key point in their creative careers. They are continuing to study the potential of this method in a new project under the title You Too.

Programmer Note by Ludmila Cvikova :
Russia seems to be the most dynamic cinema land of the former Soviet Union countries, maybe even of the former Eastern Bloc - if we don’t count Romania and if we look at the experimental potential of the Russian film industry. It’s the Russians who embraced the new technology of digital cinema and it’s young Russian filmmakers who are freeing themselves from the old system of financing film and often think of low budget solutions. There is a great cliché circulating in the film circles in this country as well: people say that filmmakers 'make especially dark films to be selected by Western festivals.' I have been wondering for quite a long time where such an idea came from. And would the Russians really believe this? I am very curious about how this daring project of two filmmakers will be accepted in their own country. Not that it is 'chernukha' again, as they call it. But the film will certainly confront those viewers who come to see it with their conventional perspective. Those who are open for innovativeness and challenges will certainly be pleased. r />(http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/films/ja-tebya-lublu/)

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Selected in the following festivals :

- Author Cinema Festival "Polnyy arthouse", Chelyabinsk (Russia), 2013

- Tromso International Film Festival : TIFF, Tromso (Norway), 2012

- Yerevan International Film Festival "Golden Apricot", Yerevan (Armenia), 2011

- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2011

- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival : PÖFF, Tallinn (Estonia), 2011

- Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema, Pesaro (Italy), 2011

- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2011

- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2011

- Film Festival of CIS countries, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia "Kinoshock", Anapa (Russia), 2011

- International Film Festival : Pacific Meridians, Vladivostok (Russia), 2011

- Festival Russian kino 'Moscow Premier Screenings', Moscow (Russia), 2011

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2011

- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2011

- International Film Festival Tarkovski, Ivanovo (Russia), 2011

- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2011

- International Festival of Independent Film "Deboshirfilm - Pure Dreams", St Petersburg (Russia), 2011

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