POLUMGLA
DIRECTOR: ARTJOM ANTONOV
RUSSIA, GERMANY 2005
100 MIN / 35MM, COLOR, OV w. engl. ST

Caligari: 08.04. / 6.00 pm
Apha: 09.04. / 4.00 pm

DIRECTOR:
Artjom Antonov

SCREENPLAY:
Igor Bolgarin
Viktor Smirnov

CAMERA:
Andrej Vorobjov

ART DIRECTOR:
Marija Belozerova

EDITOR:
Artjom Antonov
Sergej Ivanov

MUSIC:
Andrej Antonenko

PRODUCER:
Igor Kalenov
Aleksandr Rodnjanskij

CO-PRODUCER:
Karsten Stöter
Benny Drechsel

CAST:
Jurij Tarasov
Anastasija Seveleva
Sergej Grjaznov
Johannes Rapp
Martin Jackowski

PRODUCTION:
Nikola-Film, St. Petersburg
CTC Television Network

CO-PRODUCTION:
Roh Film, Berlin
Tel.: 0049 - 30 / 484 936 53
Fax: 0049 - 30 / 428 013 26
e-mail: contact@rohfilm.de

PROVIDED BY:
Nikola-Film, St. Petersburg
Tel.: 007 - 812 / 714 57 17
Fax: 007 - 812 / 714 50 49
e-mail: international@nikolafilm.ru

1944/45: the last winter of war. Artillery lieutenant Grigorij Anohin is keen to return to the front and fight the Germans. Instead he is ordered to build a navigational radar tower for Allied aircraft in northern Russia – with the assistance of German prisoners-of war. After an endless journey, the convoy arrives at the remote village of Polumgla, whose name (“twilight”) aptly describes its state of wintry desolation. The men receive an equally frosty welcome from the local women, whose husbands are at the front or have been killed in action. But POLUMGLA shows the disintegration of established friend-and-foe patterns. The prisoners-of-war (played by German actors) make friends with the villagers, take on chores, help them out. Both sides are facing a similar situation of extreme isolation, and their will to survive joins forces with the liking they instinctively feel for each other. Even the lieutenant, who is still traumatized by German war atrocities, overcomes his hatred. Only when a commando unit is sent in by the NKWD, the forerunner of the KGB, does their harmonious co-existence come to an end.
Artjom Antonov’s feature debut counts among a series of films (such as POSLEDNIJ POEZD / THE LAST TRAIN by Aleksej German jr.; honorary mention at goEast 2004) seeking to give a differentiated picture of the German soldiers traditionally shown as a horde of brutal fiends. Because POLUMGLA subverts the customary heroic pathos of epics relating to the Soviet war effort, it roused controversy even prior to release. Objecting that the end “falsified history”, and the film was “anti-Russian”, Igor Bolgarin, who wrote the book on which the film is based, threatened to have his name removed from the credits.

ARTJOM ANTONOV
Born in 1978 in Leningrad, USSR.
Artjom Antonov graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Cinematography and TV. (I. Maslennikov’s studio) in 2004. His graduation short film STOLICNYJ SKORYJ received over a dozen festival awards and participated at Cannes IFF 2004. POLUMGLA is Artjom Antonov’s first feature film. It was awarded the Prize for Best Debut and Film Critics’ Prize at the Russian Film Festival in Vyborg 2005 and the “Iris of Tomorrow” of the 1st New Montreal Filmfest 2005. Antonov is considered one of the most promising young Russian film directors.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION):
2003 Stolicnyj skoryj / Metropolitan Express / Metropol-Express
2005 Polumgla / Polumgla / Polumgla