A fable about cruelty and mercy, this is the debut feature by Dmitry Davydov, the director of Scarecrow and Illegal.
Ignat (Aleksei Ustinov) is a pious old man who lives in a Yakut village with his grown-up son. One day, his son gets drunk and accidentally runs over his drinking partner with a tractor. The parents of the dead man, and especially his father, blame Ignat and seek vengeance after Ignat’s own son commits suicide. The two men cope with the death of their children in very different ways. One takes in a homeless boy and the other drowns his sorrows in vodka, while death continues to haunt the village.
Dmitry Davydov is a primary school teacher and a talented self-taught director from the Yakut village of Amga. He wrote the script for The Bonfire and cast actors from Amga Folk Theater in all the parts. It’s hard to imagine that this was their first film, since all the actors, and especially the older cast members, look so at ease on screen. In his debut work Davydov, who would go on to win an award at the Kinotavr film festival, gracefully brought together Christian motifs and pantheism, painting an honest and unadorned picture of the tough life and brutal relationships of a village where everyone has their own truth.
The film will be screened in Yakut with Russian subtitles.
The Bonfire
Director Dmitry Davydov
Russia, 2016. 84 min. 16+
