La Palisiada
Ukraine, 1996. 5 months before the moratorium on the death penalty. Two old friends--a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist--are investigating the murder of a colleague whose widow both of them loved when they were young. Immersed in memories, they unconsciously create a future where their children will have to live, reaping the fruits of their parents' lost hopes.
* This film contains lighting that may affect photosensitive viewers.
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Film critic Adrian Martin mentioned: "La Palisiada, [...] features only two gunshots, a quarter of a century apart[...]." Between the two gunshots featured in the film, there is a change in the fabric of images, which reveals the history of a nation and a society. The reversed timeline, starting from the present and later presenting the past, constantly asks the audience to mull over how the two gunshots are interrelated. Throughout the investigation and punishment of the crime, the film exposes how brutally society operates and how the nation approves cruelty. In part, set in 1996, when Ukraine declared independence from Russia, the film talks about how the police, judicial system, and society worked and how the aftermath affected people's lives. Philip Sotnychenko's frequent use of tracking shots adds a sense of connectedness. Through the visual texture unique to each period, the filmmaker makes the story of past violence resonate until today. (Sung MOON)
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Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema⎜cyk.cuc@gmail.com
Philip SOTNYCHENKO
