There's water around. “Where the sea flows” director-debutant Vitaly Saltykov is the first and so far the only film of Russian production, included in the program of the Manhattan Short Film Festival. The audience, namely they choose the winner at this film festival, gave their sympathy to other films, but nevertheless the film entered the top ten finalists and was seen by millions of connoisseurs of author's cinema from around the world. Undoubtedly, for a person with an acting education and creative ambitions, for many years playing the role of the third plan in second-rate series, the very possibility of creating your own film, became the embodiment of dreams. And Vitaly Saltykov began his first fight for the director’s chair under the sun of glory with heavy artillery: he invited a star to the main role. Perhaps in order for her to shine in the frame, or maybe this role was actually conceived and written for Oksana Akinshina. The author chose an acutely social, ambiguous, touching on a painful and difficult topic, a reason for public battles and disagreements. And the director decided to visually implement it using the maximum number of drawn-out frames, static plans, a minimum of action, a few dialogues on abstract topics and the continuous use of symbols and metaphors.
The plot of the picture is simple, although for a modern person it is somewhat ridiculous. A gang of scum rapes a girl in the corner. The girl gets pregnant, but for some reason catches up late and comes for an abortion already on a long term. The doctor successfully dissuades her from abortion with the words “because there you have a living person.” A few years pass. The heroine lives alone with her daughter, whom she hates, because she reminds her of a terrible event. And the daughter is a pretty and affectionate little girl. And in the heart of the mother awakens tenderness to her.
We can discuss for as long as we like the viability and possibility of this plot in modern realities, touch on the topic of abortion, access to which our creative legislators are going to restrict. Criticize or support proliferators, muzzle questions of medical ethics and professional fitness of doctors. One can marvel at the drowsiness of individuals and resent the lack of sex education and rehabilitation centers for victims of violence. Realists will call the heroine an idiot, fighters for faith and spirituality will raise her to the flag and will set an example. It is easy to go to the extreme, accusing the director of dogmatism and propaganda to give birth to all whom God sent regardless of the circumstances. But it is not necessary to raise a wave of debates on social and ideological topics and attribute preaching to the director. According to Saltykov, this is not what interests him at all: he studies the relationship between mother and daughter. The mother bears a heavy cross: she raises an unwanted child, her soul and fate are crippled, and the pain is insurmountable. She made a sacrifice, whether voluntary or forced, no matter what, and now there are two opposing feelings in her: the maternal and the enemy. But the love for her little daughter is like a reward for this sacrifice, she reconciles and gives a vague, sad, but still hope.
Not all debut films can be applied the saying about the first pancake. But at the same time, most directors by the time of shooting the first full-fledged film work for public viewing have some experience in staging: term papers, diploma papers, clips, commercials, individual series in series. “Where the Sea Flows” is really the very first directorial work in the life of its creator, and it is quite noticeable. Even without being interested in the personality of Vitaly Saltykov, but only after watching this film, we can immediately say that he is a devoted admirer and correspondence student of Andrei Tarkovsky. He is perhaps unconsciously imitating him in the manner of shooting and dialogue style, in the construction of the frame. It is well known that the most important symbol in Tarkovsky’s cinematic language is water as the primary basis of life. Saltykov poured water literally everything in his film, water is in every scene. Characters go to the lake, discuss the sea, rivers, oceans, water is shown in the bathroom, in the aquarium, in the glass, it drains into the drain hatch, it is worn in a basin, a soft toy is bathed in it. Indeed, water is yin, feminine, motherhood, birth, purification, and there is a reason for such symbolism, but when a metaphor is used too often, it loses meaning, becomes intrusive. In general, the visual range of the picture disharmonizes with its synopsis: understatement, ambiguity, undisclosed motives, “increased imagery”, allegory, romanticism – not the best method of depicting the plot of a tough and even cruel, affecting real serious problems.
Short films in the modern world are almost non-commercial and non-rent format, so they are often shot specifically for participation in competitions. And when the winner is chosen not by members of film academies, but by the audience, with a high degree of probability the picture will win close and humanly understandable to most, with a hero in which you can recognize yourself or your neighbor. For the Manhattan Film Festival, the film “Where the Sea Flows” was a deliberate informal, because in the foreground you can see not the symbolism, but the story itself, in which no one wants to imagine themselves in place of the heroine. But in our country, at some Orthodox festival with Milonov and Mizulina in the jury he would collect all the awards. I don’t know if this would please the director.