Sergey Kachin: On the Way Home
A film about an ordinary couple, Aleksay and Valya, it could be a story from everywhere… she sits at home in the house far away from big cities, she knits and sews and waits for the husband to call and come home, next to her is her beloved protector, a dog. He is a long distance truck driver, always, literally, on the road, at home once in a while, tough working conditions, phone calls between them, you sense a good ambience, the filmmaker takes his time in accordance with the life that is presented, nothing really happens apart from the dog getting more and more ill, it dies, is buried, big grief from the side of the woman.
… and sometimes the children and grandchildren pay a visit, it is warmly described, an ordinary family, for once not a film about a Russian famliy with vodka drinking all the time, no this is a non-sensational film about a family divided because of the man’s job. At the end of the film the information is given that Aleksey is seriuosly ill.
The film has a tone, it is well composed, one could maybe have wished for more context as it comes in a fine way towards the end through truck drivers communicating their opinion about Russian politics and social conditions, at the same time as you are with Aleksey in his truck in a long and hopeless queue on the road.
Russia, 56 mins., 2011
