14:30, Saturday November 21, 2009
Screened as part of Retrospective I
FREE EVENT – get your ticket online to reserve seating
Leonid Nosyrev is one of the most beloved Russian directors of animation, yet he is little known outside of his own country. His films are heavily attuned to traditional Russian folk culture. They are difficult to translate but also offer a fascinatingly unique voice in cinema. Released to critical acclaim in the Soviet Union in 1989, Laughter and Grief by the White Sea was made over a period of 12 years, and is his only feature film. The film is based on the culture of the Pomors (Russians who live by the White Sea far north of Moscow), and adapts the beloved stories of two northern Russian writers and folklorists, Boris Shergin and Stepan Pisakhov. As a rainstorm beats outside, a couple of fishermen sit in a small and cozy wooden hut. The eldest man, to pass the time, recounts stories: hilarious tall tales about things such as the business trade in icebergs and -500 degree winters, yet look just beneath the surface and you will find reflected the true nature of Pomor life, with all of its joys and sorrows. Yevgeny Leonov, one Russia’s best-loved actors, voices the narrator.
