How I Ended This Summer

This is the film that received the Best Film award at the London Film Festival. It had already received two awards at the Berlin festival (Best Actor and Outstanding Artistic contribution) so I know I'm not saying anything new when I say it is a very good film.

It is the story of two men, one older and experienced and the other young, working at a remote meteorological monitoring station in the Arctic. It is their job to survive there and to send back by radio the readings of the instruments. On an occasion when the older man is absent fishing the younger man, played by Grigory Dobrygin, who received the best acting award in Berlin, receives by radio an important message that he must pass to his older colleague. Some sort of dread prevents him from passing on the message and slowly things start to go wrong between the two men, leading to disaster.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout this film, which is outstanding in all departments. It didn't look as though it was much fun to make in such a demanding location. Without fetishising the beauty of the location there sre many feasts for the eyes, and we feel with much immediacy the rocky coldness of the place, and there is usually the howl of wind to be heard on the soundtrack. In fact, as I watched it I was struck by the subtlety of the acting, not by the younger actor, who won the award, but by his older colleague, played by Sergei Puskepalis.
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The narrative is unfolded with subtlety and sure control so that tension is maintained throughout the film.