Having championed the cause of animals in farmyard doc Gunda, Victor Kossakovsky is making a fresh appeal to the world through new work Architecton: stop using concrete.
The visually arresting documentary, world premiering in Competition at the Berlinale, explores how unsustainable modern building practices relying on concrete are destroying the planet and suggests there are lessons to be learned from ancient constructions.
Without explanation or commentary, the work juxtaposes mesmerizing images of mountains being dug out for raw materials; vast landfill sites, bombed-out, collapsed apartment blocks in Ukraine and quake-hit towns in Turkey, with the majestic remains of the 2,000-year-old Roman temple complex of Baalbeck in Lebanon, which still puzzles archaeologists to this day on how it was built.
“Buildings made from concrete are lasting 40, 50 years. In the UK, you destroyed 50,000 buildings last year, imagine what is happening in the rest of Europe,” says Russian-documentarian Kossakovsky, in a timely comment...
The visually arresting documentary, world premiering in Competition at the Berlinale, explores how unsustainable modern building practices relying on concrete are destroying the planet and suggests there are lessons to be learned from ancient constructions.
Without explanation or commentary, the work juxtaposes mesmerizing images of mountains being dug out for raw materials; vast landfill sites, bombed-out, collapsed apartment blocks in Ukraine and quake-hit towns in Turkey, with the majestic remains of the 2,000-year-old Roman temple complex of Baalbeck in Lebanon, which still puzzles archaeologists to this day on how it was built.
“Buildings made from concrete are lasting 40, 50 years. In the UK, you destroyed 50,000 buildings last year, imagine what is happening in the rest of Europe,” says Russian-documentarian Kossakovsky, in a timely comment...
- 2/18/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Match Factory has acquired international rights to Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s new documentary Architecton ahead of its Berlinale world premiere.
The film project follows the filmmaker’s farmyard doc Gunda, which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and Aquerala, which world premiered Out of Competition In Venice in 2018.
The Match Factory describes Kossakovsky’s new film as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation” on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal mankind’s present destruction.
Focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, Kossakovsky reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to Ad 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.
“Victor Kossakosvsky possesses the remarkable ability to amplify seldom-heard voices on the screen. Demonstrating his mastery in previous works like Gunda and Aquarela,...
The film project follows the filmmaker’s farmyard doc Gunda, which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and Aquerala, which world premiered Out of Competition In Venice in 2018.
The Match Factory describes Kossakovsky’s new film as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation” on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal mankind’s present destruction.
Focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, Kossakovsky reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to Ad 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.
“Victor Kossakosvsky possesses the remarkable ability to amplify seldom-heard voices on the screen. Demonstrating his mastery in previous works like Gunda and Aquarela,...
- 1/31/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Fans of Salman Khan have reasons to celebrate. After a long wait, the trailer of Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan is released today.
Salman Khan posted a reminder in the form of a new poster. In it, the superstar looks dapper in a suit and a pair of sunglasses. In the caption, Salman Khan said, “Kal apne bhai aur jaan ke saath #KisiKaBhaiKisiKiJaan ka trailer dekho,” and tagged the cast and crew of the film including director Farhad Samji and actors Venkatesh Daggubati, Pooja Hegde, Bhumika Chawla, Abhimanyu Singh, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Siddharth Nigam, Shehnaaz Gill and Palak Tiwari, among others.
The trailer shows Salman and Pooja’s budding romance. Salman introduces himself as “Bhaijaan” and defeats the goons by himself. The promo promises high-octane action sequences featuring Salman. We also get a peek at Shehnaaz Gill, Palak Tiwari, Siddharth Nigam, Venkatesh, Vijender Singh, Jagapathi Babu among others in the trailer.
Salman Khan posted a reminder in the form of a new poster. In it, the superstar looks dapper in a suit and a pair of sunglasses. In the caption, Salman Khan said, “Kal apne bhai aur jaan ke saath #KisiKaBhaiKisiKiJaan ka trailer dekho,” and tagged the cast and crew of the film including director Farhad Samji and actors Venkatesh Daggubati, Pooja Hegde, Bhumika Chawla, Abhimanyu Singh, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Siddharth Nigam, Shehnaaz Gill and Palak Tiwari, among others.
The trailer shows Salman and Pooja’s budding romance. Salman introduces himself as “Bhaijaan” and defeats the goons by himself. The promo promises high-octane action sequences featuring Salman. We also get a peek at Shehnaaz Gill, Palak Tiwari, Siddharth Nigam, Venkatesh, Vijender Singh, Jagapathi Babu among others in the trailer.
- 4/11/2023
- by Shweta Ghadashi
- GlamSham
Filmmaker Shaunak Sen loves to look at his filthy polluted home, Delhi, through different prisms. His graduate school feature “City of Sleep” (2016) chronicled multiple sleep journeys, from soft beds to hard pavements. With his next, “All That Breathes,” he took his cameras from Delhi’s garbage-strewn streets to the murky skies, where hawk-like black kites circle slowly, and all too often, plummet to the earth. “That film was about looking at the city on a horizontal axis,” he said over Zoom. “This was looking at the city through a vertical axis.”
The reason that “All That Breathes” was picked up by HBO Documentary Films at Sundance 2022 (where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize) and included in all the top documentary awards groups’ early voting is that the filmmaker and his cinematographers embraced the tools of big-budget filmmaking: rack focus, pans, dollies, crane shots and long single takes. In short,...
The reason that “All That Breathes” was picked up by HBO Documentary Films at Sundance 2022 (where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize) and included in all the top documentary awards groups’ early voting is that the filmmaker and his cinematographers embraced the tools of big-budget filmmaking: rack focus, pans, dollies, crane shots and long single takes. In short,...
- 10/29/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Enemies of the State (Sonia Kennebeck)
This ambiguity is where Enemies of the State becomes a must-see because it exposes how skeptical we’ve become about the truth. As soon as you admit systems can be manipulated for selfish gain, there’s no denying that it isn’t happening right now in ways that make you the victim. Donald Trump epitomizes this phenomenon because he’s akin to God to his sycophants. They won’t even look at proof of his lies because they’ve decided that anything refuting his words has already been fabricated. So when DeHart earns the backing of other whistleblowers and the media, his story gets spun as one of a maligned hero to everyone that believes the government can’t be trusted.
Enemies of the State (Sonia Kennebeck)
This ambiguity is where Enemies of the State becomes a must-see because it exposes how skeptical we’ve become about the truth. As soon as you admit systems can be manipulated for selfish gain, there’s no denying that it isn’t happening right now in ways that make you the victim. Donald Trump epitomizes this phenomenon because he’s akin to God to his sycophants. They won’t even look at proof of his lies because they’ve decided that anything refuting his words has already been fabricated. So when DeHart earns the backing of other whistleblowers and the media, his story gets spun as one of a maligned hero to everyone that believes the government can’t be trusted.
- 7/30/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
(Interactive chart with estimates below)
This week, Neon released its Covid-inspired horror film In The Earth, directed by Ben Wheatley. Written across 15 days last August, the movie follows a scientist and a park scout in the midst of a pandemic. Their journey into a forest becomes imperiled as they find their environment shifting before them.
In The Earth opened in 575 runs in 128 markets over a 21 day window. Despite its lackluster 40% audience rating on Rt, Earth made a strong showing –especially considering these times – in the specialty box office, grossing $506K through the weekend.
Gunda was also another notable Neon debut. Directed by Russian documentary filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky, the film follows the daily lives of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken. Gunda is shot in black-and-white and features no dialogue. Joaquin Phoenix is tagged as an executive producer.
Though only making five runs in three markets,...
This week, Neon released its Covid-inspired horror film In The Earth, directed by Ben Wheatley. Written across 15 days last August, the movie follows a scientist and a park scout in the midst of a pandemic. Their journey into a forest becomes imperiled as they find their environment shifting before them.
In The Earth opened in 575 runs in 128 markets over a 21 day window. Despite its lackluster 40% audience rating on Rt, Earth made a strong showing –especially considering these times – in the specialty box office, grossing $506K through the weekend.
Gunda was also another notable Neon debut. Directed by Russian documentary filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky, the film follows the daily lives of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken. Gunda is shot in black-and-white and features no dialogue. Joaquin Phoenix is tagged as an executive producer.
Though only making five runs in three markets,...
- 4/19/2021
- by Brandon Choe
- Deadline Film + TV
Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda is, in the barest sense, a film about a short period in the life of a pig. Gunda, the pig in question, is a Norwegian sow with disarmingly expressive eyes and, at the start of the movie, a fresh litter of squeaking piglets trampling over each other to reach her milk. There’s almost something painful, or if not that, despairing and unquenchable in those newborn squeals. So much need from such tiny beings. When Gunda gets up to reorient herself, you almost wonder if it...
- 4/17/2021
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
The new documentary “Gunda” is a narrator-free look at the everyday life of a mother pig, two cows and a one-legged chicken. Filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky takes audiences down to animal eye-level, giving audiences a unique look to experience this world from the animal’s point of view. He shot in black and white, with tightly-focused shots getting as close to the animals as possible.
The documentary is available to rent via Film Forum’s virtual cinema starting Friday.
It was up to cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen to find the right gear and visual language to get up close and personal and capture Kossakovsky’s vision.
What was the first thing Victor said to you?
He had helped to edit my first feature “69 Minutes of 86 Days” so that’s how we got to know one another, and I guess he saw my approach. But the first thing he said was that...
The documentary is available to rent via Film Forum’s virtual cinema starting Friday.
It was up to cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen to find the right gear and visual language to get up close and personal and capture Kossakovsky’s vision.
What was the first thing Victor said to you?
He had helped to edit my first feature “69 Minutes of 86 Days” so that’s how we got to know one another, and I guess he saw my approach. But the first thing he said was that...
- 4/16/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
The director’s new film, slated for release this autumn, centres on a 20-year-old woman in the wake of her parents’ separation. Young Latvian director Matīss Kaža is now finalising post-production on his second fiction feature, a drama entitled Neon Spring. The story of this new film, penned by the director himself in tandem with Marija Luīze Meļķe, centres on a 20-year-old woman called Laine. Following her parents’ separation, her father becomes emotionally estranged and her ten-year-old brother Bruno starts having trouble at school; furthermore, she isn’t ready to take up her mother’s duties. At a drugged-up rave, Laine befriends seasoned partygoer Gunda. Their relationship suddenly – and unexpectedly – becomes intimate. The neon spring of Riga’s techno scene blossoms, and Laine begins to question her sexuality and identity at a time when her family is falling apart. She finds an escape in the drugs, clubs, festivals and afterparties as she.
Russian-born director Viktor Kossakovsky says it was a monumental struggle to make his documentary Gunda, starring the title character: a sow raising her litter of piglets on a farm in Norway.
“I spent 20 years to find a producer,” Kossakovsky reveals during the panel for the Neon film at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary event. “No one believed in this idea. No one.”
The idea was to show chickens, cows and pigs as sentient beings with intellect and feelings. Kossakovsky shot in black and white, and didn’t resort to traditional ways of tugging at viewers’ heartstrings.
“Many people made films about animals…but they were trying to film slaughter and put voice-over explaining how bad we are and put music with violin. But I said, no, no, no, we shouldn’t do this,” he says. “I said, no—no voice-over, no music…just watch and try to see how animals are,...
“I spent 20 years to find a producer,” Kossakovsky reveals during the panel for the Neon film at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary event. “No one believed in this idea. No one.”
The idea was to show chickens, cows and pigs as sentient beings with intellect and feelings. Kossakovsky shot in black and white, and didn’t resort to traditional ways of tugging at viewers’ heartstrings.
“Many people made films about animals…but they were trying to film slaughter and put voice-over explaining how bad we are and put music with violin. But I said, no, no, no, we shouldn’t do this,” he says. “I said, no—no voice-over, no music…just watch and try to see how animals are,...
- 1/10/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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