16.1. 2004

HIGHWAY Serguei Dvortsvoy 1999 Kazakhstan/France

Memorial Hall, Betws-y-Coed
Doors open at 7pm, films start at 7.30pm

SYNOPSIS
Traveling through the steppes of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, filmmaker Sergei Dvortsevoy accompanies a small family circus across a vast wilderness. The family of artists present their circus acts to handfuls of villagers and other travelers, transforming the barren landscape into an enchanted world.
Dvortsevoy captures this enchantment with virtuoso visual compositions that blend the magic of the circus with the magic of the camera.
A drum rolls, we see a young boy in turquoise trousers lifting a 70-pound weight with his teeth. Then, as he lies down over shards of shattered glass, his father drops the weight upon him. Miraculously, the boy jumps up, unharmed, and bows to the camera, as if to thank the audience.
But after each performance reality reemerges. The magic of the circus dissipates quickly, making way for the prayers of the father and the screaming arguments of the children. Their exhausted mother is at wit's end, and the dilapidated, hand-cranked bus that takes them from village to village won't start. The camera moves through the confinement of the vehicle into a close-up of our protagonists.
While the mother sings a lullaby, the animals of the steppes look on. A captured desert eagle observes the scene. Dvortsevoy's subtle rhythm allows us to mingle with the people and animals, to share in the existence and magic of the highway.

REVIEWS
"Splendid... Mesmerizing... a testament to the magical power of film to transport the onlooker into other lives and distant lands, to kindle contemplation, offer perspective and excite with the poetic beauty of exotic images. " - New York Times
"Amazing! Dvortsevoy chooses to document quiet moments of unremarkable lives, to make grander statements about human beings' ability to endure and survive. Minimalist filmmaking at its finest." - Chicago Tribune
"Extraordinary, universal and out of time. Without the slightest sentimentality the film reminds us that life can be interpreted as a chain of sparkling moments." - DOX
"Dvortsevoy has critics around the world swooning over a poetic, slow paced style that is as different from Soviet era propaganda as it is from the pedantic narration of the Discovery Channel." - Shout

AWARDS
** Grand Prize, 1999 Vue Sur Les Doc Festival (Marseilles, France)
** 1999 Prix Europa (Berlin, Germany)
** 1999 Yamagata Film Festival (Japan)
** 1999 Nyon Film Festival (Swtizerland)
** Official Selection, 2000 Middle Eastern Studies Association Film Festival
** Official Selection, 2001 Association for Asian Studies Film Festival

BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1962 in Chimkent, Kazakhstan. After studying aviation in Ukraine, worked as aviation engineer in Kazakhstan while studying in the radiotechnical department of the Novosibirsk's Institute. Studied in the Highest Courses for scriptwriters and film directors in Moscow 1990-93. His first film, Paradise (1995), won an Award of Excellence at New Asian Currents YIDFF'97. The film also took prizes in San Francisco, Nyon, Stuttgart, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Leipzig, and Cinema du Reel Paris. His second film, Bread Day (1997), also received many awards and was nominated for the Joris Ivens Prize in Amsterdam in 1998. Highway is his third film.


ALSO SHORT FILMS:

The world premier of The Jones Investigation: The Bristol Art Library by Ryan Jones, Wales 2004
A light hearted documentary focusing on the Bristol Art Library and the challenge of being a library assistant at the world's smallest public library.

Little Umbrella by Bretislav Pojar, Czechoslovakia 1957

ALSO LIVE MUSIC:

Alun Tan Lan - the return of the 'new Meic Stephens'