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Outskirts (Okraina)
Russia (1998)
About the film
News spreads in a remote village in the Urals that the land the
villagers are about to till has been sold to an oil magnate by local
officials. A Jim Jarmusch-esque trio of misfits decide to set off in
quest of proletarian justice. As a partisan unit of national avengers
they cross the country demanding retribution, with each victim an upward
step in society, like a deadpan Russian version of an American gangster
picture like "Point Blank." Director Peter Lutsik has a sure
touch for dry satiric humor, ironically evoking traditional
historical-revolutionary epics. When our hapless heroes approach the
metropolis, cross the threshold of one of Stalin's seven
skyscrapers, and enter the magnate's office to administer justice,
peace and harmony return to the Urals, and a satiric vision straight out
of the Soviet screen of the 30s ensues: happy tractor drivers cut
furrows in the endless fields, the women bear children, and a happy
tomorrow beckons us into the sunset.
Winner of the Philip Morris Freedom Award, 1999 at Karlovy Vary for best
work by an emerging director. Winner FIPRESCI Prize 1999 Chicago
International Film Festival.
Director's filmography
Peter Lutsik (b. 1960) grew up in the village of Berezan in the
Kiev region, then lived in Samarkand and Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
He served as an officer in a tank column of the Red Army. As a talented
mathematician he applied to study a university course on the physical
characteristics of oceans, but finally graduated from the Moscow Steel
and Alloy Institute as a metallurgical physicist (1982). After a
short period at a foundry he became assistant director at the Uzbekfilm
Studios, where he also acted. In 1990 he graduated in script-writing
at the VGIK, Moscow. In 1986-1994 he and his fellow student Alexei
Samorjadov (who met with a tragic death) wrote eight scripts
which gave rise to the most controversial films of the production year:
Gongofer (1992 dir. Bachyt Kilibayev),
Dyuba-Dyuba (1992, dir. Alexander Khvan), The
Children of Cast-Iron Gods (1993, dir. Tamas Toth),
Limita (1994, dir. Denis Yevtigneyev). The young authors
won the prestigious Nike three times, which is awarded by the Academy of
Russian Filmmakers. Before his feature film debut Outskirts,
Lutsik made a short film On the Eve (1989, Kanun).
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98 min, b/w, 35mm
Russian with English subtitles
Director: Peter Lutsik
Screenplay: Peter Lutsik, Alexei Samorjadov
Dir. of photography: Nikolai Ivasiv
Music: Georgi Sviridov, Gavril Popov
Editor: Svetlana Guralskaya
Producer: Peter Lutsik, Lev Kagno (Executive
Producer)
Production: The Morning of the XXI Century, Goskino
Cast: Yuri Dubrovin, Nikolai Olyalin, Alexei Pushkin, Rimma
Markova, Alexei Vanin, Victor Stepanov
Contact: Intercinema Art Agency
Druzhinnikovskaya 15
123242 Moscow, Russia
vox/fax: (095) 255-90-52
vox/fax: (095) 255-90-82
email: intercinema@glasnet.ru
THE HOLLOWAY
FILE
Database of Russian and Ex-Soviet Union directors
FREEDOM FILM FESTIVAL POSTER
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