GARPASTUM
DIRECTOR: ALEKSEJ GERMAN JR.
RUSSIA 2005
118 MIN / 35MM, COLOR, OV w. engl. ST
Caligari: 09.04. / 8.00 pm
Alpha: 10.04. / 6.00 pm
DIRECTOR:
Aleksej German jr.
SCREENPLAY:
Oleg Antonov
Aleksandr Vajnstejn
CAMERA:
Oleg Lukichov
ART DIRECTOR:
Sergej Sokolov
Georgij Kropachev
EDITOR:
Ivan Lebedev
MUSIC:
Igor Vdovin
PRODUCER:
Aleksandr Vajnstejn
CAST:
Evgenij Pronin
Danila Kozlovskij
Dmitrij Vladimirov
Aleksandr Bykovskij
Chulpan Hamatova
PRODUCTION:
V.K- Kampanija, Moskau
Tel.: 007 - 495 / 200 63 90
e-mail: post@garpastum.ru
DISTRIBUTION:
Intercinema XXI Century, Moskau
Tel.: 007 - 495 / 255 90 52
Fax: 007 - 495 / 255 90 82
e-mail: post@intercin.ru
The year is 1914, and while Gavrilo Princip sets out for Sarajevo in
order to carry out the assassination which will secure his place in history,
the brothers Andrej and Nikolaj are obsessed with a new game brought to
Czarist Russia by the English: football – or harpastum, as it was
known in the ancient world. Andrej is a student, Nikolaj works in a pharmacy.
Their father lost his sanity over his gambling addiction a long time ago,
and is now cared for by his brother. The two young brothers have no time
for their family or girls, soccer is all they think of. Andrej is having
an affair with an older Serbian woman called Anitsa, who hosts a literary
salon. She’s not the only one who calls him an egomaniac: His team-mates
say the same. The brothers are determined to build their own football
pitch on a meadow on the outskirts of the city. But for the time being
they make do with streets and fields. Regardless of the weather, they
play together with the obese Fatso and the diminutive Shoust against other
young enthusiastic locals – for money, and ultimately with success.
But when they finally save enough cash for the pitch of their dreams,
gangsters brutally destroy their plans. Years later, at the end of World
War I, they meet up again on their meadow – naturally with a football.
Director Guerman, whose film POESLEDNIJ POEZD / THE LAST TRAIN ran in
competition at goEast 2004, again demonstrates his restrained aestheticism.
His sepia-toned portrait shows boys enjoying a youth free of responsibility
or political viewpoints, blissfully unaware that Russia is on the brink
of the earth-shaking changes.
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