Dur d'être dieu
Antoine Cattin & Pavel Kostomarov
Switzerland, Russia | 2012 | 67 min
World premiere
Language : Russian
Subtitle : French
Alexei Guerman is one of the most famous living Russian directors. Known and respected for the precision of his work, and for his strictness, his projects sometimes go on for several years. Cattin and Kostomarov followed him during the shooting of his most recent film. They captured the richness and depth of Guerman’s work, and the harshness of his relations with his team, whom he controls with an iron hand. “In observing relations between Guerman and his entourage, our film highlights something which goes beyond this particular director’s work: something about the Russian cast of mind, that makes people see themselves as both master and slave. As the eyes are the mirror of the soul, so Guerman’s cinema is the mirror of Russia” (AC, PK).
A journey deep into Guerman’s world, or a film-world that swallows up its own creator, Dur d’être Dieu points out what is true of any creative act. Through one of the most rigorous creators of the visual image, the film opens the way to something that goes beyond cinema itself: the surprising fragility of life.
Carlo Chatrian
Translation BMP Translations
