The Belovs

The documentary is about Anna Belova, twice widowed, and her brother Mikhail, with whom she lives. Anna is a level-headed, honest, hard-wearing worker; Mikhail drinks, talks, philosophises, and every time the talk ends in nonsense. Viktor Kossakovsky turns the difference between them from a family portrait into a question of character. The film was shot in black and white, and the camera settles into the house so completely that quarrels, laughter and silences run without a break. Kossakovsky’s first feature won the Joris Ivens award and the audience award at Amsterdam in 1993, and also took the Golden Centaur, the critics’ and ecumenical prizes in St Petersburg, the international jury prize at Nyon and the audience award at Leipzig. It runs sixty minutes.