Aleksey POPOGREBSKY
Алексей ПОПОГРЕБСКИЙ
Alekseï POPOGREBSKI
Russia, 2009, 124mn 
Colour, fiction
Kak ya provel etim letom
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Как я провел этим летом

 

 How I Ended This Summer

 Comment j'ai passé cet été là

Other titles : Последний день (Last day)
 
Directed by : Aleksey POPOGREBSKY (Алексей ПОПОГРЕБСКИЙ)
Writing credits : Aleksey POPOGREBSKY (Алексей ПОПОГРЕБСКИЙ)
 
Cast
Grigori DOBRYGIN (Григорий ДОБРЫГИН) ...Pavel
Sergey PUSKEPALIS (Сергей ПУСКЕПАЛИС) ...Serguei
 
Cinematography : Pavel KOSTOMAROV (Павел КОСТОМАРОВ)
Production design : Gennadi POPOV (Геннадий ПОПОВ)
Music : Dmitry KATKHANOV (Дмитрий КАТХАНОВ)
Produced by : Roman BORISEVICH (Роман БОРИСЕВИЧ)
Companies : Koktebel Film Company, International Sales: Bavaria Film International
Film revenue in Russia : 0.587 million dollars
 
format : 35 mm
Site : www.koktebelfilm.ru/films

Awards :
Award "Droujba" Days of Russian cinema in Limoges, Limoges (France), 2012
Best film Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2011
Best Screenplay Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2011
Best Cinematography Pavel KOSTOMAROV , Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2011
Kinosoyuz Award "ELEM" Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2011
Best actor Sergey PUSKEPALIS , Grigori DOBRYGIN , Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2010
Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement Pavel KOSTOMAROV , Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2010
Award of the Federal Foreign Office Festival of Central and Eastern Film , Wiesbaden (Germany), 2010
FIPRESCI Prize Festival of Central and Eastern Film , Wiesbaden (Germany), 2010
First prize Russian Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2010
First prize The Times BFI London Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2010
Best actor Sergey PUSKEPALIS , Grigori DOBRYGIN , Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2010
Best Cinematography Pavel KOSTOMAROV , Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2010
Best directing "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2010

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/)
 

commentaries
Dix films pour découvrir la nature unique de Russie, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2022
L’espace comme piège dans les films russes contemporains, Eugénie ZVONKINE, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2017
Signs of the Everyday in Post-Soviet Cinema, Liliia NEMCHENKO, kinokultura.com, 2011
32ème Festival international du film de Moscou (17-26 juin 2010), Nicole MIGAULT, kinoglaz.fr, 2010
Aleksei Popogrebskii : How I Ended This Summer (Kak a provel etim letom, 2010), Mark LIPOVETSKY, Tatyana MIKHAILOVA, kinokultura.com, 2010
Двойной портрет на плэнере [О фильме Как я провел этим летом ], Yelena STISHOVA, kinoart.ru, 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.

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Russian or Soviet films awarded at Berlin, Cannes or Venice, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2020
- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2017
- Strasbourg two weeks of Russian cinema, Strasbourg (France), 2016
- 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
- Award "White Elephant", 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
- Festival Cinémascience, Bordeaux (France), 2010
- Arras International Film Festival, Arras (France), 2010
- Festival of Central and Eastern Film , Wiesbaden (Germany), 2010
- Russische Filmwoche in Berlin, Berlin (Germany), 2010
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, 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
- 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
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2010
- "Vyborg" Russian Film Festival (formerly ''A Window to Europe''), Vyborg (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
- Russian Film Week in New York, New York (USA), 2010
- Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago (USA), 2010
- New Directors New Films, New York (USA), 2010
- The New York Film Festival, New York (USA), 2010

Images