Cutting in a lively way... The viewer, not burdened with special knowledge, perceives the picture exclusively emotionally. I do not have a film studies education, so I evaluate films purely subjectively on a “like – dislike” scale. The work of the Soviet and Belarusian film director and screenwriter of feature and documentaries Valery Pavlovich Rybarva for me stopped exactly in the middle of this scale. “Green” I can not – interferes with personal emotional blockage. To paint in red - does not allow conscience, because everything that shot Rybarev - the truth. Bitter, terrible, but true.
The script, written by Vsevolod Egorov, is based on the story of Viktor Potanin “White Apple Trees” (another name is “Morning of Cut Apple Trees”). A true and honest story about how the war continues to grind even in peacetime those who survived in a monstrous meat grinder. Rybarev did not accidentally turn to this difficult and unpleasant story of the writer. “Live Slice” is the first independent feature film of the director, but before that Valery Rybarev has already shot several documentaries and feature films as the 2nd director.
The short film “Living Slice” refers to the new direction in Soviet cinema that developed in those years. This was called hyperrealism or hyperrealism. It was characterized by a special attention to the realities of time, elevating the most seemingly insignificant details to the rank of indisputable artistic significance. Superrealism in cinema is extremely difficult to perceive. Perhaps that is why the viewer evaluates the short film not so much with the mind as with the heart.
I am not going to dispute the artistic merits of Potanin’s story, but I categorically disagree with the behavior of the main character. My mind understands what he went through, but my heart cannot accept his behavior. Did he fight alone? What about the armless, legless, blind? At least he bodily returned. And back where? Where there's nothing left of the house! And after that, allow yourself to do this to the surviving apple trees? What is the fault of his son or wife? Just because they're alive?
Realism is realism, but I don’t like this movie.