Dmitry Davydov’s grim Yakut parable about violence as a disease has won him awards at Russian and international film festivals.
Two fathers, two sons, two houses standing opposite each other in a Yakut village. One day, Vlad sets the boat made by his neighbor Ivan, a carpenter, on fire for fun and beats up Ivan. Ivan’s son Taras has an irrational hatred of his father and, while his father is recovering, becomes close to the cruel Vlad, eventually moving into his house. Vlad’s unnamed son silently accepts the new housemate, just as he silently tolerates his father’s attacks. He is hoping that his mother’s family will take him away, but when that does not happen he has to find a way to save himself.
This monochrome and minimalist film by Dmitry Davydov (director of Scarecrow, Illegal, and Bonfire) presents a small (the action does not move beyond the village), masculine (there are no female characters in the movie), patriarchal world where children are an extension of their fathers and attributes of their masculinity. In this world, the stronger person is always right, so even characters who are not predisposed to cruelty and violence eventually take up arms to defend themselves. The film’s title (The Plague), which appears only at the end of the movie, is the director’s comment on what is happening on the screen. This world is sick, irrational, and dangerous. And indeed, the world beyond the boundaries of the static shot, which the characters sometimes fall through, is even more frightening than what we see on screen.
The film won the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Press) prize at goEast Festival (Wiesbaden), and the Best Director award at Mayak Festival of Contemporary Russian Film.
The film will be screened in Yakut language with Russian subtitles.
The Plague
Director: Dmitry Davydov
Russia, 2023. 86 min. 16+