A museum as a living being, an entity that breathes with a personality of its own. Sokrov lends soul to the colossal palace of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, one of the greatest museums in the world, witness to the Russian saga over the course of centuries.
The Russian Arc was filmed on a single plane-sequence, without cuts, 97 minutes long, through 35 rooms in the museum, making the cinema screen a living picture where three centuries of history file past: Peter, the Great; Catherine, the Great; Catherine II; Nicholas and Alexander; the last supper for the Romanovs, in counterpart to the Holy Supper; the ball that closes the film and acts as a metaphor for the last glimmer of the magnificence of the Russian empire.
I was curious to know what it must be like to reside in a work of art, an architectonic monument. I see time in its totality, a continuous presence. One must be in time, to feel an integral part of the artistic space, this indivisible architecture.
Sokrov film maker.
A cast of around theree thousand extras was employed in making the film on December 23, 2001. Sokrov says it would be a mistake to say that the film was made in only one day: the idea first occurred to him fifteen years ago and took seven months to make ready.
The main task for a film maker is not to film, but rather to compose.
The movie picked up the inaugural IFC Visions Award for best feature at Toronto Film Festival 2002.
director
ALEKSANDR SOKROV
screenplay
ANATOLY NIKIFOROV, ALEKSANDR SOKROV
cinematographer
TILMAN BTTNER
editor
L. SEMENOVA
cast
SERGEY DREIDEN, MARIA KUZNETSOVA, MIKHAIL PIOTROVSKY, DAVID GIORGOBIANI
producer ANDREY DERYABIN, JENS MEUER, KARSTEN STTER
production company
EGOLI TOSSELL FILM AG
Burgstr. 27 D, 10178 Berlim,
Tel: 49 30 24 6565,
world sales
Celluloid Dreams
2, Rue Turgot, 75009, Paris
Tel: 33 1 49 70 03 70,
Fax: 33 1 49 70 03 71
97 minutes
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