D'Est [dɛst], translated into English as From the East, is a 16-mm experimental documentary film, shot in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and the former East Germany. The film investigates the stories of people’s lives in an unstable time after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc through the idea of memory. The film has no commentary or dialogue and instead documents landscapes and residents in an observational manner. Okwui Enwezor, curator, art critic and writer, describes the characters in Chantelle Akerman's film as “bewildered, anachronistic and depthless in the harsh flare of history”.
Plot
The travelogue format of the film documents the crumbling of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe. The film was conceived “in the aftermath of impressions, memories, and emotions” which Akerman brought back following a research trip for a film about the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, whom Akerman cites as a great influence. The structure of D’Est is characterized by its sobriety and rigour, used to articulate the film’s expressiveness.[4] The film utilizes an obsessive, asynchronous rhythm of repetitions and looping. Characters and locations within the film are meticulously examined but their consequent fates are never resolved. The film's long, meditative shots emphasize the circularity of connections between personal and collective histories. The film presents a complex assemblage of images, sounds and connected fragments, which results in a “hypnotic inventory of people and landscapes.”
The cinematography of D’Est uses only available light and is executed through long, real-time shots, contributing to the genuine and unstaged nature of the film. Akerman uses two main filming approaches: the stationary fixed perspective, with figures flowing towards the camera, and the tracking shot, with the camera moving slowly along streets and paths. The film also includes examples of the panning shot, where the camera rotates around a central point. The moving shots convey a sense of anxiety and vertigo. The stalking nature of the shots reveals the inhumanity of the camera.
Source: Wikipedia
Plot
The travelogue format of the film documents the crumbling of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe. The film was conceived “in the aftermath of impressions, memories, and emotions” which Akerman brought back following a research trip for a film about the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, whom Akerman cites as a great influence. The structure of D’Est is characterized by its sobriety and rigour, used to articulate the film’s expressiveness.[4] The film utilizes an obsessive, asynchronous rhythm of repetitions and looping. Characters and locations within the film are meticulously examined but their consequent fates are never resolved. The film's long, meditative shots emphasize the circularity of connections between personal and collective histories. The film presents a complex assemblage of images, sounds and connected fragments, which results in a “hypnotic inventory of people and landscapes.”
The cinematography of D’Est uses only available light and is executed through long, real-time shots, contributing to the genuine and unstaged nature of the film. Akerman uses two main filming approaches: the stationary fixed perspective, with figures flowing towards the camera, and the tracking shot, with the camera moving slowly along streets and paths. The film also includes examples of the panning shot, where the camera rotates around a central point. The moving shots convey a sense of anxiety and vertigo. The stalking nature of the shots reveals the inhumanity of the camera.
Source: Wikipedia
Category
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Short film