The Bottomless Bag

  • 104'
  • Russia
  • 2017

For his new film, the legendary Russian filmmaker and artist Rustam Khamdamov adapted Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's In a Grove (1922), a classic short story which had already inspired Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Rashomon (1950). Khamdamov sets this story of the unknowability of truth within a frame story that takes place at the Court of Czar Alexander II. A female courtier, played by iconic Russian film star ​Svetlana Nemolyaeva, tells the czar a fairy tale about his son’s murder, and we see three different versions of this event. Which is true?

The Bottomless Bag, shot in stunning, radiant black-and-white and named after one of the stories in A Thousand and One Nights, takes place by turns at the Court, in palatial rooms and in a grove where the murder takes place. Khamdamov loads his narrative with references to European culture and silent cinema as well as Russian mythology. Baba Yaga – a witch from Russian legends – is played by tragedienne Alla Demidova. Exuberant and ironic, this film is like a magic box, full of secrets, dreams and truly cinematic jewels.

Director
Rustam Khamdamov
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Russia
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
104'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Meshok bez dna​​
Language
Russian
Producers
Rustam Khamdamov, Lubov Obminyanya, Tikhon Pendyurin
Production Companies
Christel LLC, Cosmosfilm
Sales
Cosmosfilm
Screenplay
Rustam Khamdamov
Cinematography
Pyotr Dukhovskoy, Timofey Lobov
Production Design
Irina Ochina
Sound Design
Andrey Dergachev, Sergey Sadykov
Cast
Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Sergey Koltakov, Elena Morozova, Kirill Pletnyov
Director
Rustam Khamdamov
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Russia
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
104'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Meshok bez dna​​
Language
Russian
Producers
Rustam Khamdamov, Lubov Obminyanya, Tikhon Pendyurin
Production Companies
Christel LLC, Cosmosfilm
Sales
Cosmosfilm
Screenplay
Rustam Khamdamov
Cinematography
Pyotr Dukhovskoy, Timofey Lobov
Production Design
Irina Ochina
Sound Design
Andrey Dergachev, Sergey Sadykov
Cast
Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Sergey Koltakov, Elena Morozova, Kirill Pletnyov