Architecton
Description
SFFILM alumnus Victor Kossakovsky (Aquarela, Festival 2019; Gunda, Doc Stories 2020), returns with a visually stunning meditation on hubris, extraction, and architecture. Epic in scale and brimming with sumptuous visuals, Kossakovsky probes humanity’s historic obsession with erecting grandiose structures. Global in scope and enormous in scale, the film floats through time and space, featuring mysterious monoliths, ancient temple ruins, and recently destroyed structures in Turkey and Ukraine. Our guide through the masses of imposing rock and concrete is Michele De Lucchi, an Italian architect who quips about the folly of humanity’s arrogance while building a sculpture in his backyard. De Lucchi’s process of creating sacred natural space is tenderly captured by Kossakovsky as an antidote to the stark imagery of demolition and the incredible wreckage wrought upon the planet in our endless quest to build bigger and better. Wondrous, imposing, and dazzling, Kossakovsky’s latest essay on the paradox between nature and humanity is a marvelous sensory experience.
—Jessie Fairbanks
Biographies
The filmmaker began his career in 1978 at the Leningrad Studio of Documentaries as a camera assistant, assistant director, and editor. In 1988, he graduated with a degree in screenwriting and directing from the Moscow Film School. His feature debut The Belovs (1992) won both the VPRO Joris Ivens Award and the Audience Award at the IDFA in 1993. Since then, his films have received numerous prizes. His previous film, Gunda (2020), premiered in the Encounters section at the 2020 Berlinale and was nominated for the European Film Award.