Pavel LUNGIN Павел ЛУНГИН Pavel LOUNGUINE   Russia / France, 2005, 103 mn  Colour, fiction

Roots ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Бедные родственники    Familles à vendre  Bednyye rodstvyenniki

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Plot synopsis

[...]As the Russian title (literally, “poor relatives”) of Lungin’s film suggests, the story concerns the encounters between poor and wealthy relatives. The film’s irony in part relies on the deconstruction of the term “poor relatives” with its loaded cultural meaning. Neither the new configuration of the relationship, nor the film’s humor exhibit any real depth. Traditionally, of course, the poor relatives journey to find their wealthy uncles and aunts, who would often take in their less fortunate kin as servants. The film treats this event in its more contemporary manifestation: wealthy and middle-class émigrés who have made it in the new lands (the Americas, Israel) return to the homeland, to the roots from which they were severed. The implicit motivation for their return is the search for spiritual nourishment, and so the émigrés sacrifice the material comforts of their villas and Western civilization to journey to their ancestral past, the timeless village of Golotvin. They believe that here they will be able to complete themselves by reconnecting with their heritage. All for the nominal fee of…[...]
Michelle Kuhn, kinokultura.com

 

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Commentaries and bibliography

Pavel Lungin: Roots (Bednye rodstvenniki), 2005, Michelle KUHN, kinokultura.com, 2006

 

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Selected in the following festivals :

- Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2012

- Les rencontres culturelles Russenko, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre (France), 2012

- Rуtrospective Pavel Lungin at the Cinémathèque de Nice, Nice (France), 2010

- Festival des cultures juives, Paris (France), 2010

- Arras International Film Festival, Arras (France), 2009

- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2009

- Russian Film Festival, Orléans (France), 2007

- Days of Russian cinema in Valence, Valencia (France), 2006

- Nantes Russian Film Festival ''Univerciné'', Nantes (France), 2006

- Release in France of the film, Different cities (France), 2006-01-25

- Strasbourg two weeks of Russian cinema, Strasbourg (France), 2006

- World Film Festival, Montreal (Canada), 2005

- Russian Film Week in Paris : Regards de Russie, Paris (France), 2005

- Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2005

- Festival Kinoblick, Stuttgart (Germany), 2005

- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2005

- Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Moscow (Russia), 2005

- Window to Europe Film Festival, Vyborg, Vyborg (Russia), 2005

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2005

- Russian Film Week in New York, New York (USA), 2005

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