Mesto na zemle (2001)
A Place on Earth (2001)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | 02:01:52 | 6,04 Gb
Audio: Russian AC3 2.1 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Art-house, Drama
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | 02:01:52 | 6,04 Gb
Audio: Russian AC3 2.1 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Art-house, Drama
Director: Artour Aristakisian
"A Place On Earth" is a film-parable which explicit existential and philosophical visuals and themes, brilliant study of a man's place on earth (and in universe), complex mixture of religion, philosophy, psychology and myth, along with the great directing from Russian director Aristakisian. Set in Moscow this story is about the Hippie Commune which hosts the homeless, the crippled and the poor with their needs for shelter, warmth, safety and sympathy. People of the commune find love, but that makes them unhappier… The founder of this strange commune makes sacrifice, giving everything of himself, creating "the Temple of Love" to meet the needs of the poor. What can be more humane toward the crippled and the poor than making love with any of them! But the sacrifice is useless; full of internal contradictions the community brakes up leaving its members as lonely and bereaved as before…
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Mesto na zemle (2001)
Part documentary, part feature film, compelling and deeply disturbing, Artur Aristakisjan's A Place On Earth, is a portrait of a Moscow commune in which squatters, beggars, cripples and the insane become actors in a metaphysical examination of the human need for love and spiritual healing. Six years in the making, the film features only one actor (Khaev) among the cast of Moscow homeless echoing Aristakisjan's 1994 documentary The Palms, which dealt with the homeless in his native Moldavia. However, here they become actors in a poetic drama in the Russian literary tradition, as they follow a Christ-like leader who promises them love but brings them only more suffering. The tough subject matter and frank portrayal of sex will turn off many viewers, making this a hard sell commercially, but like his earlier documentary Palms this film is destined for a wide audience on the global festival circuit and has already been received dozens of invitations.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
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Aristakisjan has lived on the streets himself and his approach is neither condescending nor sentimental. He has made a film intended as a bridge between the viewer and the social outcasts whose story he weaves into a religious drama.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
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In the opening scene a mentally disturbed outcast Maria (Verdi) is wandering the streets of Moscow when she finds her saviour in the shape of Johnny, (Khaev) the leader of a commune who takes her in. Johnny, who is determined to change the system by giving love to the unloveable, takes in the homeless and the emotionally and physically damaged, giving them shelter in a squat where he believes they will be healed by sharing their love. The collection of drug addicts, cripples, invalid children, babies, dogs and troubled young people searching to find themselves make up a family that cares for each other.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
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However, as the community becomes increasingly squalid and dysfunctional, Johnny's ideal of a social order built on love deteriorates into bedlam. In an effort to prove the strength of his beliefs to his followers, Johnny castrates himself in front of them, but his sacrifice is futile, failing to stem the dissolution of the community. The remaining inhabitants of the squat are finally driven out by a brutal police raid leaving them to return to the streets without hope or salvation.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
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Aristakisjan shot the film on an almost non-existent budget on the Moscow streets, using the ruined former home of The Master And Margarita author Mikhail Bulgakov as the location for the squat. With a camera style that echoes the Dogma manifesto, he manages to create an almost physical contact with reality. The final police raid is based on a real raid on the commune during the shooting which Aristakisjan paid them to return and re-enact so he could catch it on film. Rich in religious imagery but devoid of sentimentality, the scene where the women bathe a hideously deformed cripple and dry him with their hair is ritualistic and freshly contemporary at the same time.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
![Mesto na zemle (2001)]()
Open sexual intimacy in the claustrophobic environment of the squat throughout the film, especially in scenes in front of children, will limit its audience, as will the unappealing nature of its characters and the subject matter, but the film will be widely appreciated on the global and arthouse festival circuits.
Mesto na zemle (2001)
It's very difficult to subscribe movie like this one in such small review. I think I would need big essay to say all of my emotions and opinions regarding "A Place On Earth". It was a pretty hard journey watching this movie, because of it's explicit existential and philosophical visuals and themes, but the feeling I've got when I left the theater was astounding. Than I had time to think and realize what exactly did I just seen. "A Place On Earth" is a wonderful movie, brilliant study of a man´s place on earth (and in universe), complex mixture of religion, philosophy, psychology and myth, along, of course with the great directing from Russian director Aristakisian. The best films are those that stay with You forever, and this is one of them. I've seen this one in Sarajevo, Bosnia, at "8.Sarajevo Film Festival", august.2002., and the director Aristakisian was also at the projection, explaining that his movie we should explore as a book and not a piece of cinema. And he was right. Watching this I had a very literate feeling and I think that it´s what is the best about "A Place On earth". Surely a master-piece.IMDB Reviewer
Mesto na zemle (2001)
Special Features:
- Short: From Avant-garde to Video Art (1996, 25:47, IMDB, with English subs)
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