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[KavkazUzel] Alexei Fedorchenko's film "Big Serpents of Ulli-Kale" about the relationship between the peoples of Russia and the Caucasus was shown at the opening of the 32nd International Film Festival "Message to Man" in St. Petersburg. The film is intended to show that the Caucasus historically influenced Russia no less than Russia influenced the Caucasus, the director said.
The two-hour film "Big snakes of Ulli-Kale" directed by Alexei Fedorchenko was shown on October 22 at the St. Petersburg cinema "Aurora" at the annual 32nd international film festival "Message to Man", which runs from October 21 to 29.
The film was shot according to the script by Alexei Fedorchenko and Lidia Kanashova in 2022 and released by the 29 February film company with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture, Roman Abramovich and the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, according to the description of the film on the festival website.
"They met and are now inextricably linked with each other. They love, they hate, they deceive, they want to change each other and want to subjugate forever, they kill each other, they raise common children. Their names are Russia and the Caucasus," it says in the synopsis of the film on the festival website.
The new film by Alexei Fedorchenko, who previously directed such films as "Oatmeal", "Anna's War", "The Last" Dear Bulgaria ", goes beyond the conventional documentaries, the description of the film says. "The director invites you on an exciting ethnographic journey, where the history of relations between the peoples of Russia and the Caucasus and the aesthetics of silent cinema are mixed," the description says.
The 29 February film company was founded in 2004 by directors and producers Alexei Fedorchenko and Dmitry Vorobyov.
"For several years of successful work, eight feature films were released ("First on the Moon", "Railway", "Oatmeal", "Heavenly Wives of the Meadow Mari", "Angels of the Revolution", "Anna's War", the short film "Chrono-eye", short film "Breathe"), a television series, four animated films and 14 documentaries," the company's website informs.
"Big Snakes of Ulli-Kale" is a pseudo-documentary film about a director who finds a treasure trove with old films, and on them there are films dedicated to the relations between Russia and the Caucasus. All these “movies within a film” were filmed by Fedorchenko himself, but presented as a chronicle from various authors, including real ones, Meduza reports today*.
According to the plot of the film, in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg, an old chest with films was found, on which "a collective work of a hundred years ago under the mean title" In one film, "Fedorchenko himself plays the role of an archivist-publisher who found the treasure," the newspaper writes.
"The film in the film consists of nine chapters," made "by different authors (surprisingly, all of them are real people).
According to the director, this is 70 percent of the material, the remaining time in Big Serpents was made up by Fedorchenko himself and his film crew.
Eclecticism is declared as a concept ... Try to figure out where is the fact, where is the myth, and where is the conscious hoax or inspired nonsense.The founders of the Caucasian Mountain Society, European Rudolf Leitzinger and Petersburger Otto Chechott, in fact, at the beginning of the 20th century set out to turn the Caucasus into a “second Switzerland,” based on the plot of Fedorchenko's film, they ordered a film almanac to several enthusiasts," the publication cites an opinion about the film by Meduza film critic Anton Dolin.
The freedom and "creative arrogance" of the film are striking, says Anton Dolin. "Combining experimental art with naive art, he [the screenwriter and director] boils documentary and feature films in one pot, seasoning it with animation and even elements of theater, drama and dance," the publication says.
It was decided to show Fedorchenko's film at the opening of the festival, this is the first screening in Russia, the president of the festival, Alexei Uchitel, said earlier. "At the opening, we will show a new painting by Alexei Fedorchenko" Big snakes of Ulli-Kale, "this will be the first show in Russia," TASS quoted him as saying on October 6.
The film festival "Message to Man" was founded in 1989 by documentary filmmaker Mikhail Litvyakov, in 2010 film director and People's Artist of Russia Alexei Uchitel became the president of the festival, the publication specified.
Aleksey Fedorchenko himself earlier called his new painting "not ethnographic, rather historical."
“We don’t know so much about our history, and I’m always happy when I manage to tell something new about what everyone seems to have known for a long time. As it turned out, films that were made about the Caucasus rely mainly on Lermontov and Tolstoy And in order to look a little deeper, to read the primary sources, the wonderful books of the first researchers of the Caucasus, their historians and philosophers - I have never seen this. I wanted to tell everyone that the Caucasus also had a strong influence on Russia - no less than Russia influenced the Caucasus. This is how the film “Big snakes of Ulli-Kale” turned out," Rossiyskaya Gazeta quoted him as saying on August 21, 2021.
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