A strange movie I saw at the SXSW movie festival. The claim of Jessica Oreck's movie is, "A true story, set in the future". It is based on the 3-years siege of Stalingrad in World War II, when under the siege of the German army, more than on fourth of the population starved to death. The movie contains a lot of authentic voices from survivors of the siege, but the film takes place "in the near future". The look and feel of the movie, however, is more of a 60s Soviet-era--small, torn-down Ikea-less flats, old CRT monitors, shabby clothing. In the film, the city (of course, then called "Leningrad" again) is under siege. The main protagonists, a young couple of biologists--Alyssa and Maksim--work at the world famous N.I. Valivov institute, a resource for mankind's genetic treasure of plants and seeds. The institute was founded in 1921 and, indeed, the scientists under the 1943-45 siege were rather starving to death than eating the bank's precious plants and seeds.
A strange, and impressive film, mostly shot in b/w at the authentic locations in Russian language. With minimal resources, the director (about whom I know little) re-enacts a story about Leningrad's citizens' suffering and bravery.
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