The title sounds like this should be a coming-of-age story, and in a way it is, even if the main character is a twentysomething intern at an arctic observation post. His only companion is an older man with a wife and child back home in Russia. For quite a while, writer-director Aleksei Popogrebsky mostly seems to be giving us a sense of place. No pun intended, but the pace is kind of glacial. Time passes slowly in this place, and presumably the viewer is meant to feel that way. Popogrebsky gives us long takes of characters moving across the bleak landscape. Filming at an actual polar station, he uses time-lapse photography to show the light change, but not fade, in the arctic summer. A home viewer may be tempted to fast-forward (or turn off) the movie, but in the last half there is suspense, despair, and irony. The plot involves a bit of deception by the younger man, and unintended consequences. Much of the photography is striking.
IMDB link
viewed at Ritz 5 [Philadelphia Film Festival] and reviewed 10/18/10
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