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Viktor Kossakovsky (1961 - )



Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all of my films look like fiction.

Feature Documentaries

Ло́сев [Losev] (1989)
На днях [The Other Day] (1990)
Беловы [The Belovs] (1993)
Среда 19.07.61 [Wednesday 07.19.61] (1997)
Тише! [Hush!] (2002) R2 Potemkine DVD
Я любил тебя [I Loved You] (2003)
Россия из моего окна [Russia from My Window] (2003)
Свято [Svyato] (2005)
¡Vivan las antípodas! (2011) R1 Docurama DVD
Manifestación [Demonstration] (2013)
Graine de champion (2016) R2 Les Films du Préau DVD
Aquarela (2018) RA Sony BD
Gunda (2020) RB Star Media Entertainment BD / R4 Umbrella DVD

Shorts

Павел и Ляля [Pavel & Lyalya] (1998)
DisplAir (2012) official Vimeo link
Short Plays ("Russia" segment) (2014)
Varicella (2015)
Lullaby (2015) official YouTube link

In lieu of a Christmas ham, I caught up with Gunda today, which I see has a Norwegian Blu-ray but is also distributed by Neon in the U.S. They're...just going to sit on it, aren't they? What a missed opportunity to pair it with Pig in that big 2021 release boxset they recently announced. Gunda is an even more loving portrait of this most intelligent of animals, meticulously shot in gorgeous B&W, and despite featuring no trace of the human form or voice during its runtime, still manages to boast the name of SUPERSTAR AND INDIE FILM DARLING JOAQUIN PHOENIX as executive producer--go see this movie!

Also, if anyone knows of any DVD releases for Kossakovsky's other films that I haven't listed above, I'd very much like to know!

This was part of Neon's 2020 blu box, which unfortunately I think was only available as a For Your Consideration box of screeners and that linked promo giveaway.

Gunda took so long to get to Hulu I wondered if maybe they were still trying to squeeze it into more theaters. But it's on Hulu now, and was the thing I recommended most to meat-eaters going into the big feasting holidays. It's also a pretty great headphones movie.

Spoiler

The final shot's so cruel in length that for me it bypassed resignation on its way from despair to boredom. Life is life, but I feel they should have snuck an edit in there.

Liked Aquarela as well despite some risible music cues. The warming world's suitable heir to Reggio's work.