This film served as a guide to an area unknown to me. I heard earlier that there are people with mental disabilities who are special, but I didn't understand what it was like to be special. To be honest, for moments I was even afraid of their strangeness, just out of ignorance, not out of fear. But after watching the film, I thought only about one thing, that all these people, Anton and other shown patients, not terrible, not evil, yes, not quite ordinary, but at the same time, like everyone else, with their problems, with their experiences and feelings.
Arcus has done a great job not only as a director, it is certainly very difficult to make such an emotionally heavy film and convey all the feelings and emotions of the characters, as accurately as she did. How did she do that? It’s simple, she told a story that she had lived through and decided to share it with us as a friend, to convey all the feelings and emotions that she had experienced over the years. The cameraman Alisher Khamidkhodjaev perfectly complemented the director’s work with his shooting.
The world is not without kind people, but everyday routine absorbs all our feelings and emotions, but thanks to such strong work, we are increasingly reminding ourselves of the importance of kindness and love in the lives of others, albeit healthy, but in their own way.
Gradually, under the pressure of circumstances – a sharp increase in autistics in recent decades – the level of literacy in this field is increasing. In Europe, understanding is as stalled, as society is slow to respond to change as it is in Russia. It is only gradually becoming clear that people are different. In the film you can see a typical reaction of misunderstanding even from close people, what to say about people who have never faced such a thing. That is, people expect the same reaction as if they were communicating with others like themselves. They are genuinely surprised and offended when they do not receive the expected response. But it just doesn't make sense.
The first is to replace in your vocabulary "autism" with "autism spectrum", because forms and manifestations vary widely. There is high-functioning autism — people can take care of themselves, they have no difficulty in this, just with features. Quite adequately behave, although the oddities, of course, are noticeable, but are perceived as "strange behavior", even this makes communication with them more interesting, you learn something new than from ordinary people.
Shown in the film Anton Kharitonov also to "classical" autism (Kanner syndrome, "look through people") is not particularly suitable, fully contacts and reflects the surrounding people.
In addition, as I understood, Love Arkus, the author of the film, organized the Foundation “Exit in St. Petersburg” to help solve the problem of autism. Again, it is not for me to judge whether he is successful. From the material on the Internet would highlight Igor Leonidovich Spitsberg (Center "Our Solar World") - a professional in this part.
Very interesting, just now comes the understanding that the world is not at all what we imagined. All those weirdos suddenly turned out to be the same people. As before, the left-hander was considered for the deviation that should be corrected.
As the first known film about autism in Russia, it was done quite well. What is embarrassing, it is presented from a position - poor, unhappy. People on the autism spectrum in other countries are driving the industry. And from the experience of Igor Spitsberg, they also occupy high positions in Gazprom.
Most anime creators are mostly autistic. Anna Hideaki
“Anton is here” leaves a dual impression: on the one hand, the problem is raised and our attention is drawn to it, on the other hand, the reproduction of the same pityful Russian-intellectual cultural code is striking. Arkus with his film is a flesh of the flesh of Russian classical culture with its central focus on the idealization of man. In "Anton is near" idealized all the key characters (Anton himself, his mother and father, Arcus, etc.), including the camera. While in the center of the film is the figure of Anton (this lucky man who still managed to escape the normalizing trap of psychiatry), against the background of the tape, the innumerable anonymous mass of all other residents of psychiatric institutions appears in the background. In the film, I was surprised by the glaring contrast between the single happy fate of the main character and the background existence of the rest of the “mad” who fell into the frame only on occasion, for no reason, without a purpose. Therefore, when I watched the film, I did not care about the fate of Anton (the intonation of the upcoming happy ending is clearly stated in the author’s very first monologue). As a result, I faced quite different questions: what about those who did not become the hero of the film, for whom there were not enough kind people and who spent not a year or two, but decades in those institutions? When you begin to ask such questions, you realize that there is no basis for any idealization of people and situations. You understand that there is a need for some other angle, a different approach.
7 out of 10
I hope you will not get sick by old age, for example, Alzheimer's disease, and your family and friends will not consider you ' non-human' There are enough people with such judgments in our country, so such films are made so that at least one convolution moves and the hand trembles in Google to hammer ' what is autism?'. But apparently, nothing flinched, since you in your old age write this kind of urinal, exposing yourself to the public as a close-minded person. Without understanding the essence of the question, you do not need to judge others as “non-humans” '. It seems that age is solid, and to compare mentally unhealthy people and people with physical disabilities (I call it defects, because these are completely curable / compensated things) well, it is at least silly. And also 'Elephant Man' here wove ... Let’s once again compare all autistics with the heroes of the films ' Rain Man', ' Mutants' and 'Rise of Mercury' and I will call you a bad word. 'May you be healthy!' . .
“Anton is here” is a film about an autistic boy who lives all his life with his mother, Rinata Kharitonova. But suddenly the mother is diagnosed with cancer, and the only person who is nearby in this “minute” is the director of the film, Lyubov Arkus, she tries to help arrange Anton to an “elite” boarding house, from which after 19 days he is asked to take away, then to another boarding school, where only “2 sisters and 2 nannies”, in which living conditions are simply unbearable, then they go to the village “Svetlana”, where people like Anton live with volunteers, but from there they are asked to take the boy... Eventually, a solution was found and Anton stayed with his father. The outcome of this story was happy, but, unfortunately, Anton is not alone.
The creation of this film was inspired by the composition of Anton “People”, which he wrote at the age of 12. Before I started watching the film, I, of course, read the essay, but it did not cause much emotion: there was something unusual, special about it, but no more. But what a surprise it was when I read it again, but after watching the movie. The difference was, but it is impossible to convey in words, it must be felt.
I highly recommend watching this movie for everyone. In fact, I hesitated to watch it for a long time, because I knew that it would be difficult, but as Anton wrote: “People endure,” “People will endure.” Yes, the film justified my fears, but I do not want to. This is the first time I’ve seen a movie and it makes me think. Many high-quality feature films also have a positive impact on people in some way, but this film is a documentary, it is something special, it is impossible to just forget. There are no actors in it, and this is probably the hardest thing to realize. All events are what they are. It's life. This is not a game.
I’ve never met someone like Anton, but it’s as if I’ve even begun to understand their world. Their most important quality is sincerity, it is something that can not be taken away from them, and what we often lose. Anton somehow returns to life, returns to love.
Just saying “Anton’s here” makes it warmer as if he’s really there.
9 out of 10
When I started watching Anton Is Here, I was preparing to see a documentary about an autistic boy with numerous interviews with various relatives, interrupted by the close-ups of the main character and sad behind-the-scenes comments, after which the crew happily drinks seagulls and goes home. But I saw something completely different. I can’t call it a purely documentary film – it was too much invested by the director and the cameraman, it became too personal for its creators to give it a cold definition of “documentary”, I would still call it an author’s film. Yes, there are no actors, the situation is not invented, life itself is the author of the script, costume designer, makeup artist, etc. But still there is one big difference between the “ordinary” documentary and the film “Anton is near”: in the documentary, as a rule, there is a dry statement of facts, “dry” on the part of the film crew, which was given the task to collect information and beautifully present it; in the same film, the director and the cameraman missed it through themselves, became its behind-the-scenes characters, and that is why the film hits so hard. I am sure that no morally healthy person will be able to calmly and indifferently watch this movie.
The film is definitely about love. Selfless love for people. And patience. Although the shooting and communication of Lyubov Arkus with Anton lasted more than one year, it seems that the film was made “on the same breath” under the impression of communicating with the boy. The most amazing thing is that Anton does not cause feelings of pity with his illness, so clearly in the film it is shown that we are all disabled, who are physically, who are morally, everyone should be pitied. Anton evokes feelings of love. And if the boy evokes such a strong feeling in the viewer for a little more than an hour and a half of viewing, then one can imagine what the director and the operator experienced thanks to constant communication with him. Although it is difficult to imagine just the opposite, even impossible. Only one thing in the film seemed superfluous to me - the scenes with Rinata after she found out that she was sick. Maybe I’m wrong and these scenes were necessary to convey the emotional intensity that occurred in the soul of the characters of the picture, but the viewing was too difficult for me.
The camera work of Alisher Khamidkhodjaev is amazing. While watching, I often forgot that the characters are not actors, that they are filmed by a real camera, and everyone knows that in front of the camera a person begins to clamp, behave differently than without it. And if Anton had his own relationship with the camera (at first the boy was afraid of the camera, then he got used to it, fell in love with it and began intentionally trying to enter the frame, even if the camera was not aimed at him), then the rest of the people behaved in front of it quite naturally, in which Khamidkhodjaev’s work is felt in addition as a psychologist. Views, plans, compositional construction and color solution of the frame - everything is done by Alisher at the highest level, and at the same time we should not forget that there is no second take in documentary films.
The camera itself played an important role in Anton’s life – thanks to it, the boy opened up, in her presence he wanted to talk, communicate, through the camera lens, Anton looked at the blue sky and thought that he was flying.
Director of the film Love Arkus involuntarily turned from the narrator into the hero of the film, a direct participant in the events, remaining mostly out of sight of the lens. The voice-over text that Arcus reads deserves special praise - it plays a very important role in understanding the film, in understanding the relationship between the characters of the picture, while in it the director turns himself inside out, without being shy of the viewer, it is impressive. A special thank you to the director for choosing this topic, maybe at least this film will draw attention to the problem of survival of disabled people in our country, in which the necessary conditions are absolutely not created for them (as it was said in the film, in Europe there are several dozen special homes for autistic people, in huge Russia there is only one), and a boarding school for people like Anton turns into a real hell in which patients are doomed to a slow terrible death. First of all, we ourselves must change the attitude towards people like Anton, whom many fear and avoid, instead of understanding and accepting.
Surprisingly intertwined the fate of the heroes of the film with the fate of its creators. Without this connection, such a film would never have happened: such a powerful and emotionally filled, causing a variety of feelings, a film very honest, clean. It serves as a kind of bridge – a bridge from the viewer to the hero, from ordinary to unusual life, from person to person. The film reminds us that we are all human, we are all different, good and bad, joyful and sad, sick and healthy, happy and unhappy, but we all need one thing – other people. “Man needs a man,” says Andrei Tarkovsky, the hero of the film Solaris. Anton and people like him, supersensible, always need a little more than the rest - more love, attention, care, patience, necessarily need someone nearby. At the end of the film, we see Anton accepting the world around him, “less light, but more patience.” He understands everything perfectly, learns to live as one has to live in this world, and with him again learns to live and director. “People do not tolerate, people tolerate, people tolerate. People are finite, people fly.”
Every documentary tries to reveal a new problem in our country. Interest is often those that are really ours: our politics, our alcoholism, etc. But a documentary on the theme of which many “world” films have been shot, this is a topic discussed and disclosed in principle. Therefore, one detailed description of the content of the review is enough to draw conclusions that everything is bad, but there are still heroes.
The expanses of our country look more pleasant in feature films. Problems and solutions are usually searched for on television, but only superficially, and again the question arises: “Is anyone’s heart really turned towards one boy, and not towards the show on the first channel or some recognition?”
A very mediocre documentary about one patient and one who wants to cure. .
The voice-over reasoning somehow does not correspond to what is happening on the screen. Very little is shown of the love of which so much has been said. Yes, there are a lot of words, but in fact: she still gave it to the hospital, after some time she stole (?). And if you look even more superficially, she in general only opened the eyes of Anton’s father that the son is his flesh and blood, regardless of the fact that he is not like everyone else.
Some senseless fuss about the boy on her part. His mother died, and his father would have taken him in regardless of the film. Although the emphasis is on the opposite, only with the help of the filmed video could a miracle be achieved. Not to live Anton, but to films on which he is "kind, cheerful, sad, kind, good, grateful, big, small." Walks, runs, jumps, talks, looks, listens.
I would like to thank Love Arcus for her wonderful film. For making one great film, it changed my mind about documentary. Thank you for showing that documentary film can be different - kind, candid, truthful, lively and emotional, rather than cold and fact-killing.
The film “Anton is near” is a direct proof that the power of love and not indifference in the life of another person, can probably change the world. The film is a direct proof that by helping and saving someone else, you can save and help yourself (without counting on it at all).
During the whole time of watching the film, I sat like a dug-in, I was worried, because in those few hours Anton became a close person to me. I think it was experienced by 6 (total!!) people who watched this movie with me. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the theater this year. “The camera changed the life” probably not only the director and participants of the film, but also ours, the audience.
With tears in my eyes (catharsis is nothing else!), I want to once again thank Love Arcus for this amazing film. “Anton is here” is definitely worth watching.
The picture was successfully presented at the Venetian festival, received, however, not the most prestigious award, the Russian name of which is once again better not to mention. Moreover, the film itself is, if not a milestone, then a very significant event for our cinema and all those who are related to it. Especially for Love Arcus. For 20 years she wrote about cinema, headed the editorial board of the St. Petersburg magazine “Session”, analyzing, evaluating, interpreting the creativity of others.
It is one thing to shine as an artist in a small episode of the hit "Cococo", another to become the head of the site, the one who is responsible for the bazaar. Critics rarely change their profession to direct, I think, not least for fear of being inept at something they've spent their lives dealing with on paper. Before Arkus was the example of his ex-husband - Oleg Kovalov, who changed his favorite film science with directing and made several cinematic films, so "advanced" that even film critics and critics grabbed their heads.
A few years ago in the “Session” was published a strange text called “People” by a certain Anton Kharitonov: People are kind, cheerful, sad, kind, good, grateful, big people, small. Walking, running, jumping, talking, watching, listening ..." fits on one typewritten page. Arcus wanted to meet the author. He was a 12-year-old autistic.
This film could be abandoned at the very beginning, when the young hero stubbornly ran away from the camera, not wanting to make contact. Or it could be confined to a chronicle recording the development of a little rain man. Or degradation, as, for example, did Czech colleagues-documentaries, 10 years methodically filming drug addict “Katka”, without interfering in her life, as a result, finally destroyed by heroin. Or you could get rid of yourself with some beautiful act, like what Brazilian artist Vic Munis did to the garbagemen in the film “Dumpster” by inviting them to pose for their paintings, and then taking them to a prestigious auction and handing everyone the money from the sale of paintings. Perhaps something like this was originally planned, but as the relationship with Anton developed, the idea deepened and deepened to bring the ultimate truth and at the same time absolute “banality”. It's all about love.
Anton is that litmus test that reflects her level in society. No, not in society. The people around him. Without it, it is like a flower without water. With her, it starts to change. Both are captured by the camera. We see an ever-changing process – the bloom, the decline. An experiment conducted by society. The experiment is unique only because it is set on a person, although it is kind of forbidden to put experiments on people. Actually, the main component of the unauthorized experience is the ordeal of an autistic Anton Kharitonov between his own St. Petersburg apartment, from which his father left a long time ago and his mother is about to leave, and various instances.
I can't think of any film that has so vividly captured the metamorphosis of such dramatic change. Anton, deprived of the habitual defense mechanisms of an adapted person, reacts directly to everything. Therefore, it makes no sense to imitate kind-heartedness with it, so the film unwittingly puts a far from comforting diagnosis of our world and our time. It seems that this movie was shot not four years, but a quarter of a century. And it has converged in the last decades - the stagnant socialism of the 80s, the dashing 90s and the New Russian glamour of the zeros.
I am more than sure that all four years dedicated to Anton, Lyubov Arkus did not think about any message of the future film or any possible awards. All professional components crosses out and at the same time pays for her act alone. The challenge to our world order is that it is stealing Anton from the asylum, which, I tell you, looks much cooler than in an adventurous feature film. To then hide it for several months at your own risk in the "safe house", fearing any knock on the door. And as if in gratitude for this, the kid from the ugly duckling turns before our eyes, if not into a beautiful swan, then at least into a sane guy, smiling and friendly, and, most importantly, no longer rushing like a wild beast in a cage.
For four years, Arkus did not shoot a movie so much as she saved a man who almost burned down in the hellish kitchen “in the name of Comrade Kashchenko.” She saved Anton Kharitonov, and she also saved herself. The creative act coincided with some very important spiritual process for her, which eventually led to the transformation of the creators and viewers. I am not responsible for all of them, but I personally, and I think all the dozen and a half people who were in the room where I watched it, experienced very strong feelings in two hours. And the audience catharsis seems to coincide with the catharsis of the characters: we see a father with a new, second wife watching videos of Anton for several years and, it seems, finally realizes that it is his son, his blood and flesh. And as a result, he takes Anton into his new family.
And the most important thing is that with all that is shown here, it is not a black woman, it is a wonderfully bright movie, what else to look for. And the tears that will flow down your cheeks will not be tears of pity, but will be the tears that happen in those rare moments when we manage to look into the very depths of our soul.
“Anton is here” is a film without nationality and genre. Frankly, it is even difficult to define it as documentary or artistic. And if you dig deeper, it’s not even a movie. It's life. It’s just a little slick and adapted for the viewer. But it is pure art because it passes through the viewer. And unlike many, even the most brilliant films, takes place not on a flight, but stuck somewhere deep.
“Anton’s Next” isn’t trying to be a film that asks global questions about the lives of disabled people or the state machine, or about people’s global responsibility for each other. This is all on the screen, but it is secondary. The film will make you think about the state apparatus and the unbearable living conditions of many Russian citizens, but all this will seem very petty, compared to the main message of the film. A message that is available to anyone who is willing to accept it.
“Anton is here” is a film about everyone who has found the strength and time to watch it. It's a movie about me. This is a film about you, who carved out a desire to go to one of the few theaters that launched his screening at home. This is a film about someone who watches it at home, buying a DVD or waiting for a TV show. It’s a movie that, if it doesn’t, will help you understand something that’s really important and profound.
"Anton is here" tells a story that is hard to accept. Anton is no match for David Helfgott (Glitter) or John Nash (Mind Games). He is an autistic person who cannot adapt even to autistic society. His whole life depends on the love of others. His mother, director of the film Love Arcus, volunteer David. And comparing yourself with these characters of the picture involuntarily asks such a simple, but at the same time such a difficult question - is there enough love in me that the life of another person depends on it? The answer is always disappointing.
“Anton is here” is that rare work of art that erases many facets, that makes you think and empathize, that sits somewhere in your head and does not give rest. It's about all of us. It's about people. As Anton himself says, “People are finite.” People fly. It’s a very simple phrase – any student could write it. It is a very difficult phrase – personally, I still can not fully understand it.
9 out of 10
I first heard about Anton Kharitonov recently. That day, a film about autism was shown on Channel One. It contained brief stories about several autistic people. One of them was Anton.
And now I went to the movie Love Arcus.
I will not say much about this picture: you need to look at it, not talk about it.
I don't have a review, but a thank you. “This is not a story about how one person helped another person, but about how one person recognized himself in another,” he said. I think we can say that this is a story about mutual aid. “We live as we can, and they – how we will help them” – in my opinion, a very correct judgment. A huge thank you and a deep bow to Love Arcus and all the filmmakers for what they did for Anton. A huge thank you and the lowest bow to Anton for what he did for Love Arcus and all the filmmakers. Thank you to all of them for what they have done for me and for all those who have seen and will see this movie. I am sure that this picture will help everyone who sees it.
It is incredible, amazing what kindness, attention and love are capable of. After watching the documentary, this becomes especially clear.
This is not a movie from the series “How He Was, How He Became.” We didn't have time to save him.” A documentary story about how important it is not to be afraid in time to "get into the frame."
In the hands of Lyubov Arkus got the composition of an autistic boy Anton, in which there were such lines “people endure”. These words, as it turned out, best describe the author. Arcus decided to build a story from herself. She began Anton’s story with a revelation about herself: the mechanical flow of life, the absence of loved ones. Unexpectedly, the path of Arcus crosses with the path of an autistic boy, who at that time does not shine anything in his life, except for a psychoneurological clinic, which is tantamount to death.
While watching the tape, I had two questions: what made Arcus pick up the camera and document the story of an autistic boy? Why did the director need such a close connection to his own life? After all, in this format, the documentary film “Anton is near” acquires two main characters at once. I'll try to figure it out.
In Russia, autism as a diagnosis is absent. But children with such a developmental disorder are born. And they, without even understanding, are recorded in the ranks of not capable citizens, and these psychoneurological dispensaries are turned into vegetables. In fact, autistic people are the most adapted, the most adapted to life people of all who suffer from abnormalities in mental development. And it is quite logical that such an unprecedented case as the transformation of an autistic person into a full-fledged person should become known, should have a corresponding impact on the viewer under the slogan “It is possible!” But Anton's story is exceptional. The child not only loses the closest person, but also family friends are perceived exclusively as a cross, which had to carry the unfortunate woman. After the death of his mother, he will be left alone. And a stranger is looking for different ways to save Anton from the hospital. Of course, the picture is also informative. It shows the main thing - an alternative to a dispensary that kills people. This is a specialized camp, the work of volunteers. One thing I want to say when I look at it is, “There is a possibility!” I do!
But the main thing in the picture are two parallel psychological stories. After all, this is not only the process of adaptation of Anton, the disclosure of his inner world, where there are feelings, thoughts, but also Arcus herself: reconstruction, in fact, filled with the wrong themes of life. After all, in both heroes, a person capable of loving is destroyed.
"The camera changed lives," Arcus says at the end of the film. The camera connected Anton with Love, sparked interest in the boy. The camera exposed the lives of heroes. The camera made people (the mother of Anton, his father) believe in him, reveal their true emotions. Unfortunately, only the camera showed the boy’s loved ones that “Anton is here.”
Cinema is like a mirror, only it reflects not our outer shell, but what is not tangible, not material - the soul, heart, feelings. But to see it, you need to look through the heart, feel and perceive openly and honestly. And if you continue to compare a movie with a mirror, then there can be a variety of “mirrors” here – perfectly clean, curved, concave, dirty, broken or completely reflective, but only brilliant as foil. But the real mirror (reflecting) is in the dark and you need to glow yourself to find the way to it, and you can see yourself in the mirror only thanks to the light emanating from it.
Finding the way to the movie “Anton is near” without the light that lit up the cinema inside the audience is quite difficult. However, thanks to the Venice Film Festival and the festival “Other Cinema”, it became possible to look into the pure mirror, which with real kindness, love and care created and keeps for the viewer Love Arcus and the entire film crew. It is amazing that such films have finally appeared on the screens of big cinemas not only in the capital, but also in provincial cities! I think that many who came to the movie “Anton is near”, thanks to the light coming from the picture, will see “here next” to another one of themselves. The self, from which washed away a touch of sociality, fashion, public opinion, accepted rules of "good-bad", falsehood and pseudo-feelings. Anton's smile, his eyes, his embraces, his true and pure love, is something that is in each of us that we desperately hide, fearful of being misunderstood by society, fearful that someone will not understand us. "People endure."
Documentaries often show a social problem harshly, painfully, and, unfortunately, insensitively (mostly in television documentary). Very accurately, in an interview with the TV channel Culture, this was noted by the film’s operator Alisher Khamidkhodjaev: “something is missing in them (in many documentary films). It’s as if it’s cold, there’s some observation. It makes you sick and uncomfortable.” And apparently that is why the film “Anton is near” violates the framework of classical documentary, interfering in life, changing its course and most importantly filling the space of cold warmth and sincere love. While watching, you realize that Love Arkus not only created a beautiful film, but also gave Life and Happiness to many of the characters of this film. Moreover, the heroes here are not only those who are in the frame, but also those who are behind the scenes and at the screen, that is, we are the audience. With the help of love, care and the camera, Lyubov Arkus created an entire world for Anton, and after all, she does something similar with the release of a beautiful magazine “Session” – creating a separate huge world for the reader. I want to say a great human “Thank you, Love, for all your love that you give to the world!”
If we consider the film “Anton is near” only as a movie, it is difficult to attribute it clearly to documentary. It’s something extraordinary, something much more that hasn’t happened yet, and which is probably a fusion of feature and documentary. If I watched the film without the director’s voiceover comments, I wouldn’t immediately have guessed that this is not a game tape. I probably would have thought at first that this is an experimental art house with an incredibly strong, vital pitch.
“The camera changed lives,” says Love Arcus at the end of the film. Indeed, cinema really rebuilds life, vision of the world and attitude to it, to people, to the unmade. Cinema is not only a separate world, but also a way to see the world inside yourself and yourself in the world. The film “Anton is near” is a great step on the way of knowing your true self, knowing love and life. "People fly."