Mikhail BRASHINSKY
Михаил БРАШИНСКИЙ
Mikhaïl BRACHINSKI
Russia, 2002, 70mn 
Colour, fiction
Gololed
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Гололед

 

 Black Ice

 Le Verglas

 
Directed by : Mikhail BRASHINSKY (Михаил БРАШИНСКИЙ)
Writing credits : Mikhail BRASHINSKY (Михаил БРАШИНСКИЙ), Konstantin MURZENKO (Константин МУРЗЕНКО)
 
Cast
Tatyana DRUBICH (Татьяна ДРУБИЧ)
Egor PAZENKO (Егор ПАЗЕНКО) ...the last husband
Ilya SHAKUNOV (Илья ШАКУНОВ) ...He
Viktoria TOLSTOGANOVA (Виктория ТОЛСТОГАНОВА) ...She
Konstantin YUSHKEVICH (Константин ЮШКЕВИЧ) ...the lover
 
Cinematography : Aleksey FEDOROV (Алексей ФЕДОРОВ)
Production design : Vladimir KARTASHOV (Владимир КАРТАШОВ)
Produced by : Fyodor BONDARCHUK (Федор БОНДАРЧУК), Sergey MELKUMOV (Сергей МЕЛЬКУМОВ), Stepan MIKHALKOV (Степан МИХАЛКОВ), Yelena YATSURA (Елена ЯЦУРА)
Companies : Art Pictures Studio, Non-Stop Productions
 
format : 35 mm

Plot synopsis
Mikhail Brashinsky's Gololed (Black Ice, 2003) is another Russian film which at first also invites the comment that a good-looking woman doesn't always make a good-to-watch film. The director has said that he wanted to create a female character who is always energetic and never ever stops. That she is blonde and smart goes without saying. Yet this film becomes something very different. The focus shifts away from the woman to rest on an awkward gay man. What he is trying to do and why he finds it so difficult we are never quite sure. One doesn't spend too much time thinking about it, however; the film's look is too absorbing. It was shot with digital video cameras and transferred to 35 mm in what the director calls a "low-tech" procedure. The shaky, out-of-focus, but, above all, very luminous appearance that results has something of a cross between faux documentary and television advertising. Surprisingly, the director claims not to watch TV. Yet "I'm aware that it exists", he says, nevertheless. The film has not yet been released in Russia and the public response to its matter-of-fact portrayal of gay life and love remains to be seen.
Source : www.kinoeye.org
 

commentaries
Mikhail Brashinskii: Black Ice (Gololed) (2003), Birgit BEUMERS, kinokultura.com, 2003
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- International Film Festival of the Commonwealth Countries "Moscow Premiere", Moscow (Russia), 2007
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2003
- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2003
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2003
- Russian Film Week in New York, New York (USA), 2003