A Hawk as Big as a Horse

Filmstill A Hawk as Big as a Horse

A Hawk as Big as a Horse

Yastreb razmerom s loshad’
Sasha Kulak
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
France
2022
74 minutes
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

A blue wooden house at the edge of the forest, lonely, but not peaceful and quiet. This is where Lydia lives, a transgender ornithologist who presents herself in high heels and a pearl necklace one day, in cargo pants and functional wear the next. Director Sasha Kulak calls her film a documentary fairy tale, and the borders between reality and fiction are blurred indeed, because Lydia loves play, staging, the uncanny – and David Lynch.

Lydia has watched “Twin Peaks” more than thirty times, its characters and plots have long since spilled over into Shcherbinka, a small town south of Moscow. She claims to find bodies in the underbrush and even Lynch’s “Red Room” has been replicated under the roof of her house. Now she’s facing a new challenge: the creation of Lara, a lifelike silicone doll whose voice also guides us through Kulak’s cinematic tale. Lydia works hard at realising her dreams, but she is equally passionate about studying birds and the so-called Nezhulyas, shy eyeless creatures that are exceedingly cuddly and have tantric potential. “A Hawk as Big as a Horse” becomes a vehicle of Lydia’s visions, using three-dimensional animation and various cinematic techniques to open a portal to a very specific fantasy.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sasha Kulak
Cinematographer
Sasha Kulak
Editor
Sasha Kulak
Producer
Louis Beaudemont
Sound
Andrei Dergatchev
Score
Iakov Mironchev
Animation
Elizaveta Federmesser
Winner of: Special Mention (International Competition)