Born in Lvov in the Western Ukraine in 1963, Vitali Manski trained at the Soviet film school, VGIK, in the early 80s, but came into conflict with the system and eked a living with a night job before being forced, in 1988, to move with his family to Rostov-on-Don. It was there, however, that an assignment to make a youth film resulted in Sobaki (Dogs), which made Manski known throughout the country.
Since then, he has become one of Russia's leading documentary makers, with films screened at festivals all over the world. His 52-minute documentary, Blagodat (Bliss) made for his own company, MV-Studio, set up with help from foreign investors in 1993 made its international debut in Nyon this summer.
Like his second feature, Telo Lenina (Lenin's Body), a prize-winner at Locarno in 1993, the film whose title is heavily ironic is a kind of autopsy on Mother Russia. Ivannikovo, the village on which Manski focuses, has been little affected by the 20th century. As unchanged by the fall of Communism as it was by the October Revolution 79 years ago, Ivannikovo (population: 20) goes about its daily life much as it did a century or more ago.
Manski captures the reality of the villagers' poverty ('Life is a big piece of shit,' is their worldview), but also the formal beauty of the world in which they live. Ivannikovo is, however, says Manski, 'a community in the process of an inexorable death'.
Prod co: MV-Studio, YLE TV-2
Prod: Jarmo Jaskeleinen, Vitali Manski
Dir: Vitali Manski
Guión (Scr): Viktor Belyakov, Vitali Manski
Foto (Ph): Ruben Voronov
Mont (Ed): Victoria Kousina
Ventas (Sales): Oy Yleisradio AB
Duración (Running time): 52 mins
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