Sergei Potapov: My Love (Liubov’ moia, 2004) and/or Kito-Moto (2007) reviewed by Maria Sibiryakova © 2022 |
In recent years the Sakha film industry has enjoyed significant international recognition. There are many factors that have shaped this success. Among them is a story-telling tradition that draws on centuries of oral transmission and an unbroken line of theatrical representation, which has built up a community of actors, performers, and directors that have mastered a very distinctive idiom.
Sergei Potapov, known to many as the “Sakha Tarantino”, is by far the most prominent director in the contemporary Sakha theatrical scene and is a household name not only in the Sakha Republic, but in Russia, and increasingly across Europe. The recently organised week-long Potapov Fest, which was dedicated solely to his creative work, in the city of Pskov is the latest testimony to this phenomenon.
My Love (2004), also known as Kito-Moto[1] following its 2007 “remake” (more on that later), is Potapov’s cinematic debut. The film broke new ground and has served as inspiration to filmmakers in large part because it was the first Sakha film, which was a financial success. With a budget of approximately 120,000 roubles (£1,200) it made around 450,000 roubles (£4,500) profit at the time when the film was first released. It is considered by many to be one of the films that kickstarted the so-called Sakha “kinoboom”.[2]
The reason for the film’s success has itself become a source of speculation. When asked why the film was such a hit, Potapov responded that what really spiked the number of viewers was the shock factor. That shock was largely brought about by the shattering of audience expectations. This was carefully set up by the way the film was marketed. The film’s producer Aleksandr Danilov (Sakha company Almazfil’m) had released a trailer ahead of the film in which the film was presented as a typical romantic melodrama. Adding further to the illusion was the title, My Love, as well as the poster, which prominently featured lead actress Tamara Obutova,[3] shown outside the Tsentral’ny cinema theatre. The public were led to expect a film that was soft, light, and easy to watch. Instead, they were presented with a psychedelic thriller and social drama rolled into one. My Love was so daring in its ability to raise numerous social issues in such an unexpected way that it amazed and baffled viewers and critics alike at the time. The surprise opened up the possibility that filmmaking could go beyond simple entertainment and could touch on serious issues in a dynamic and disruptive way.
The story is about two brothers who live figuratively and literally at the very bottom—in a basement with no windows, and with no access to the privileges and commodities of modern life. True to classical theatrical traditions, the brothers’ images are polar opposites: the younger is fit and handsome whereas the older brother is bland, has various learning difficulties, and requires assistance in his daily activities. Despite the contrast in appearances and capabilities, the brothers are alike in one key respect: they are broken inside and driven by a dream that they will one day rob a bank and run away to Mexico. Then the older brother will be ‘cured’ by Mexican doctors after which they will go to Hollywood. However, as the viewer suspects early on, things are far more complicated and complex than that.
The film’s cinematic merits are clear to see. What is perhaps less obvious is that the artistic roots of the filmmaking are deeply embedded in classical theatre traditions. Potapov’s theatrical training is obvious in My Love in which the plot trajectory and dramatic mise-en-scène come straight from the grammar and performance theory associated with the stage. At first glance the film is clearly and intentionally made to be quite abstract and absurd. Its presentation in a series of separate scenes gives the impression that this is almost intentionally confusing. However, it soon becomes clear to viewers that this film depicts an eerily familiar reality in the way it exposes deep social traumas of modern society.
The film is remarkable in many ways. For one thing, it is the first major Sakha film, where the theme of the film is not uniquely Sakha or related to Sakha culture, traditions, and/or reality. Sakha cinema is often viewed as a tool for revitalising and reconstructing Sakha national identity and culture. This is not surprising as inspiration for films are very often based on Sakha national folklore, oral traditions, heroes, heroines, local legends, stories, themes, well-known characters, or even places. However, the story that unfolds in My Love could have taken place anywhere—it has no images of traditional symbols seen so much in Sakha cinema up to this point, such as the natural world, horses, or fire that every Sakha viewer can relate to. The only reference to the Sakha republic is in one scene when the brothers film a video message in front of the Sakha Republic flag in the background. Here the flag serves the purpose of creating an atmosphere of seriousness of their demands rather than relating to the Sakha identity specifically. There are very few scenes of Yakutsk, the city where the film was shot, and most of the scenes are filmed indoors with no specific references to Yakutia. In fact, the film, with its references to East Asian themes, such as the imaginary ninja performance or the samurai-like warrior who appeared in the younger brother’s dream, and the almost over-staged performance style of the actors with their exaggerated emotions and long silent pauses bring to mind many Korean and Japanese films. After Potapov, the themes of the East and their specific cinematographic and acting styles were further explored by Siuzanna Oorzhak in her film Leaving Hong Kong (Pokidaia blagoukhaiushchuiu gavan’, 2011).
Secondly, the film is a true testament to what Sergey Potapov is about as a director. It seems that for Potapov, there are no distinct boundaries between theatre and cinema. However, despite being steeped in the classical traditions, Potapov has always been an iconoclast, even in his stage productions. He constantly reinvents challenges and rules of drama bringing together an eclectic mix of styles and seemingly incongruous elements of story-telling and visual narrative. Anything can go in the mix, as long as there is a strong message to viewers. Potapov is a maximalist with his tricks, ideas, and approaches. However, like many other Sakha directors, he is a minimalist with resources and often uses his ingenuity to overcome the lack of financing. For example, the set for the film The God Johogoi (D’öhögöj Ajyy; Russian title: Bog Josogoi, 2015) was a Sakha National Festival Yhyakh celebrated by Sakha on the Solstice Day in June. In My Love the set was largely confined to a single basement, in part due to the low budget. Potapov fully utilises this however, as a stylistic device to create an atmosphere of internal turmoil, the very atmosphere we see play out in the lives of the brothers. The set intensifies the events, feelings, characters, and viewers’ perception.
Potapov has a distinct and recognisable “off the wall” and unapologetic approach when it comes to his works. He likes touching upon the deeply buried feelings of his viewers in the most shocking but sensitive ways. My Love is also a story about love and its healing and destructive powers. “Kito-moto” is a magic word[4] which can bring love to those for whom it is lacking or perhaps simply don’t know what love is. The film reminds us of the inescapable truth that far too many of us are only capable of living our lives the way we are told to by the media represented by an intrusive presence on a television screen in the film. In My Love, the whole world is a computer game segmented in short instalments of events, a drunken surreal blur with a zombie-like creatures, and a stage where all the men and women are merely players, who play with each other’s lives and deaths. Potapov, as a true “cinema-theatre,” director gives us a full-blown Shakespearean-like tragedy on our screens, where only the Fool remains true to himself.
Thirdly and finally, the film, somewhat inadvertently, highlights the problems of film preservation and archiving, as well as the lack of centralised support from the state in helping to document modern Sakha cinema. Today the film is hard, if not impossible, to get a hold of. Potapov himself is unsure whether the film exists in its original form because the only known complete copy was lost when his computer hard drive broke.[5] No DVD, VHS or digital copy is known to exist elsewhere. This very fact is indicative of the nature of the Sakha cinema: it is primarily made up of what in Russian is referred to as “naked enthusiasm”. The film My Love is one of the most iconic films in the history of Sakha cinema and it is important it is preserved for future generations as cinematographic heritage.
For this review I was able to get a hold of a DVD file with distorted sound—the only available copy today, which is essentially what Potapov was able to save and turn into a director’s cut named Kito-Moto (2007). Oddly enough, the film is perfectly suitable for viewing without a quality audio recording of the actors’ sporadic dialogues, which are in the Sakha language. The film is as powerful as it is, because its sole purpose is to speak to viewers’ subconscious mind and appeal to their feelings. And it does so brilliantly, despite or even because of its imperfect recorded form. The film weaves in and out of one’s consciousness long after watching it.
The final scene of the film is quintessentially philosophical. The older brother finds himself on the stage. We can see that the brothers’ whole lives condensed in the basement were just entertainment for invisible viewers who continue to applaud the visibly confused older brother. On the other side of the stage is an unmissable void that screams louder than the ovations. This brings to mind Anton Dolin’s (2017: 19) remark about Sakha cinema: “Yakutia is the end of the world to some extent. Sakha cinema turned this fact into an advantage, at least, a psychological one. When you are at an edge, you become indifferent to the borders recognised by the rest; in the end, your only limits are eternity and non-existence.”
Notes
1] Kito-Moto is a director’s cut produced in 2007.
2] The term “kinoboom” was first introduced by Sardana Savvina, the Sakha films promoter and producer.
3] Tamara Obutova is an actress at the Sakha Academic Theatre.
4] There is no translation for this word, made up for this particular film
5] Interview of the author with Sergei Potapov.
Maria Sibiryakova
Works cited
Dolin, Anton, 2017. “Yakut Miracle,” in Sakha Cinema. The World of Mysterious Nature and Myth. Eds. Sergei Anashkin, Sardana Savvina, and Jin Park. Busan: BIFF, pp. 17-21.
Kito Moto, Russia/Sakha, 2007
Color, 33 minutes
Scriptwriter and Director: Sergei Potapov
Assistant director: Aleksei Makarov
DoP: Semen Amanatov
Production Design: Mikhail Egorov
Editing: Anatolii Mamrukov, Aleksandr Lukin
Cast: Aleksei Pavlov, Ayaal Ammosov, Tamara Obutova, Petr Sadovnikov, A. Gromova, U. Evseeva, A. Pavlov.
Producer: Aleksandr Danilov
Production: Almazfil’m
Sergei Potapov: My Love (Liubov’ moia, 2004) and/or Kito-Moto (2007) reviewed by Maria Sibiryakova © 2022 |