Film Archive

Jahr

Land (Film Archive)

Filmstill Landscapes

Landscapes

Los paisajes
Hernán Fernández
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Argentina
2022
65 minutes
Ukrainian
Subtitles: 
English

Valentyna and her bed-ridden mother live on a small farm surrounded by the evergreen, lush flora of the rain forest. The works and thoughts of the poet and the artist, though, are filled with the landscapes of their old home, Ukraine. Memories of snow and birch trees, thistles and orchids, vegetable gardens and their animal residents come to life in Tamara’s poems and Valentyna’s drawings.

Life flows quietly in the small house in the middle of nowhere. Valentyna takes care of the few animals, milks the cows, makes cheese, cares for her mother. The photos on the chest of drawers, the allusions to the Chernobyl disaster only hint at why the two left Ukraine a long time ago. But what they left behind still lives in exile. One wonders whether she, the celebrated poet, still remembers her writings? Mother and daughter are as gentle with each other as the film’s gaze on the two women, their animals and surroundings. Without a trace of nostalgia, cinematographer Mariano Maximovicz’s images let us see not only the beauty of the landscapes we live in but also of those that live on in our minds.
Marie Kloos

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Hernán Fernández
Script
Constanza Sandoval, Hernán Fernández
Cinematographer
Mariano Maximovicz
Editor
José Goyeneche
Producer
Maca Herrera Bravo
Sound
Julián Caparrós
Score
Serguéi Rajmáninov
Nominated for: FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Interreligious Jury