With love for "the most important of all arts" Recently, a documentary film Vladimir Golovnev "Far Plan" was released in wide distribution, which premiered last year at the Docker International Documentary Film Festival.
And although the young Omsk director Vladimir Golovnev has been working in documentary work for more than a year, it was “Distant Plan” that turned out to be the first full-length film in his filmography, the duration of which was only 67 minutes.
The film focuses on the author’s attempt to talk to the viewer about the role of cinema in the life of Russians through the prism of three different stories. But the problem raised in the film is not the desire / lack of interest of the population to watch movies, but in the arrangement of the settlements themselves. After all, Russia is not only megacities with developed infrastructure. The Far Plan shows us another Russia: provincial, dying. Well, or, if not dying, then somehow surviving (especially depressing in this regard, the third story, the events of which take place in the Komi Republic). And against the background of all this, a red thread in the film is a plot about an official traveling around Russia, for whom it is important to perform the task “from above” – to build modern 3D cinemas in small towns and villages and instill the love of the population for the beautiful. But such measures, which the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Cinema Foundation have taken, sometimes seem inappropriate (although, if you look at the problem globally, the step is certainly important on their part). So it is nothing but a feast during the plague. It seems that there are tools for the development of regions (at least in the field of culture), but only there is no one to develop: young people move to larger cities, old people are not interested in new movies, especially “advanced” use torrents, preferring to download new products from pirate sites. You just have to deal with altruism.
It is about such a mechanic-altruist and was discussed in the first part of the film. Unlike the cinema-checking official, mechanic Uncle Sasha doesn't wonder why so few people went to "The Avengers," or "John Wick-3." There's one or two viewers, that's great. And if there are no visitors at all - he himself does not mind to look like a spectator.
It is somewhat similar to the first and second parts of the "Distant Plan". Only her hero, in addition to being an altruist by nature, also tries to make his own movie. Yes, on the lap, yes, without big budgets, on a regular phone camera. But still do something of your own, "spit into eternity" albeit a short film. Perhaps also played the fact that the restlessness of the protagonist, combined with his charm, made the second segment of the film the most interesting part of the “Far Plan”, in my opinion.
A spoonful of tar was the third part of the picture, which shows a practically dead city with abandoned houses. And it is here, where there is no hospital or police, a landmark event is the opening of a new 3D cinema. This is certainly not “Leviathan” Zvyagintsev, but the impression of the film (especially for the final) produces a depressing. Who should go to see new products, if the population here is one or two and is tired?
Nevertheless, the tape of Vladimir Golovnev, in my opinion, turned out to be an interesting work, revealing the life of our hinterlands through ordinary everyday conversations. Yes, the picture for someone will be “shock therapy”. But someone lives like this all his life and does not complain to anyone. And the movie. For some it is just leisure, but for the main characters of the film it is something more - a whole life.
8 out of 10