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

http://onthewayhome.eu/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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