Borowitschi

Documentary about daily life in Borovichi, a small Russian country town – more of a village really – about halfway between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The film opens with a meeting where an elderly lady sings a proud song about Borovichi, about the time when there were lots of kinds of industry. Now only the numbers of apples in the storage barns count. The inhabitants prepare for the winter. The film concentrates on people going about their everyday activities, on their faces and the face of the city. The director allows us to share in the renovation of a house, a political recruitment drive on the street and shows us several buildings from the inside: a primary school, a police station and a bath house.Two years ago the festival screened Viola Stephan’s Slask – Schlesien, a portrait of the Polish region Silesia. Like thatfilm, Borowitschi is also a meticulously-made, intimate and impartial documentary, in which the 35mm camera (held by Victor Kossakovsky, who was also responsible for the scenario) recorded beautiful informal pictures of the people and their surroundings. The film’s rhythm is in step with the gentle rhythm of the town. In this slow and penetrating motion, the camera records a population that seems to wish back to better times – the former Communist Party received most votes in the town in parliamentary elections held last year.