Above the Lake

Above the Lake (Надъ озеромъ, translit. Nad ozerom) is a black-and-white 1995 cinema of the Russia independent film directed by Dmitrii Frolov. It is based on Alexander Blok novel Nad ozerom. The film is not an adaptation in the usual way: it is the reconstruction of the cinema of the beginning of the 20th century, performed by our contemporaries. Being a poetically philosophical reflection of the perception of A. Blok's poetry, the film at the same time reproduces the atmosphere of the legendary Silver Age.

Plot
A poor poet (perhaps Blok himself), his ghost-lady and the third character, subtly hinting with beauty and an article on Dantes, are immersed in authors not in a feast of aestheticism, but in the simple and eternal reality of our sinful world. Exhausted by passions, they are pathetic, they are beautiful in their own way, but how impudent are their impulses, completely fitting into the scheme of the classical love triangle. And only the imagination of the Poet, even spurred by cocaine, can transform this wretchedness into a hymn to the eternal confrontation of two men who have fallen in love with one woman.

Cast

 * Peter Kremis as Poor poet
 * Romil Rachev as The poet's friend
 * Natalya Surkova as Lady

Details

 * Work on the film began in 1994, according to a script that does not at all resemble the final film.
 * Filming took place in the very place where Alexander Blok wrote a poem "Above the Lake", as well as the famous "Stranger". This is the station "Shuvalovo-Ozerki", where at the beginning of the 20th century artistic youth and nobility loved to rest in the summer seasons. Some of the plans of the film are shot in place, from which the surrounding in Blok's poem is described with an accuracy of several meters (see "Above the Lake").
 * Music for the film "Above the Lake" was composed and recorded in 2006 by the modern classical composer Sergei Alexandrovich Oskolkov.
 * The original version of the 1995 film was 15 minutes, but then the whole scene was cut from it by the director, which reduced the film by a third.
 * The film was shot on a camera with a manual drive, reminiscent of the technique of shooting films in the era of silent movies.

Festivals

 * Light & Future International Film Festival, Houston, USA, March 2019 (Award)
 * Once a Week Online Film Festival, USA, September, 2019
 * Direct Monthly Online Film Festival, USA, October, 2019
 * Festival Internacional de Cine Silente, Puebla, Mexico, November, 2019 (WINNER)
 * Madras Independent Film Festival, Madras, India, July, 2020 (Award Winner)
 * Global Monthly Online Film Competition, Canada, July, 2020 (Award Winner)