KRAI

In the past, film was still an art that was completely committed to life, as someone remarks in KRAI (“The Country”). Now, however, like so many other things, this artform is corrupted by greed for profit. In his film, Aleksey Lapin agrees with this complaint, but with tongue in cheek: his portrait of a village on the Russian-Ukrainian border, with its rhapsodic, poetic form, isn’t taken in by any trends. And Lapin himself also adds a touch of irony to the statement himself, as two lads casually chatting onscreen are brought back to the present moment by the film crew who ask, “Can we film something now?”