Part of SFFILM Festival
Core of the World
Description
A mild-mannered vet named Egor is caught between a group of animal rights activists and the proprietors of the dog-training farm where he works in this complex naturalistic drama. Plunging deeply into her characters’ lives, Nataliya Meshchaninova’s second feature portrays Egor attempting to find his moral center in an environment where the distinction between what’s right and wrong isn’t always easy to grasp. Viewers with a sensitivity to animal mistreatment may find some scenes challenging, but the director’s compassion towards her characters, whether two- or four-legged, is evident throughout.
“Superbly acted by a cast that also intrepidly deals at close quarters with some unpredictable animal life, Core of the World can be read as a parable about the fragility of human empathy under pressure … Filmically, this is a riveting, sometimes harrowing essay in realism with overtones both of the Dardennes school and of the kind of borderline-documentary fiction currently pursued in the US by directors such as Roberto Minervini and Chloe Zhao. Meshchaninova’s version of this mode has its own harsh stamp of dirt-engrained authenticity; her sometimes shocking drama should help establish her as an audacious, idiosyncratic force.” – Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily
Nataliya Meshchaninova made her directing debut with The Hope Factory (2014), winner of the Best Film award at the Vilnius International Film Festival, followed by a documentary, Psevdezh i simulyakry (2014). She also directed episodes of School (2010) and The Red Band Society (2016) TV Series. Core of the World won Grand Prize of the Festival at the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival.
Trailer
Film Details
Year 2018
Language Russian
Runtime 124
Country Russia/Lithuania
Director Nataliya Meshchaninova
Producer Sergey Selyanov, Natalia Drozd
Writer Nataliya Meshchaninova, Boris Khlebnikov, Stepan Devonin
Editor Dasha Danilova
Cinematographer Evgeniy Tsvetkov
Cast Stepan Devonin, Dmitriy Podnozov, Jana Sekste
Print Source Indie Salesfestival@indiesales.euindiesales.eu
Original Language Title Serdtse mira
