Look for a cat – Weekend
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The film of the year before last, shown in Cannes and awarded with the Cesar award, was released into the desert Russian rental – “In Search of the Snow Leopard”, a meditative and overly lyrical dock about people in the animal world.
The irbis, also known as the snow leopard, is one of the most beautiful and, due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, little-studied mammal species. Perhaps that is why the snow leopard has become a part of mythology, which is covered with such large snows: somewhere far away it leads its secret and noble existence, condescendingly surveying the majestic mountain slopes and Homo sapiens swarming at their foot. Capturing a snow leopard is an invaluable reward for any wildlife photographer or documentary maker. For this reason, the French documentary star Vincent Munier, who had already caught no less precious specimens of Arctic wolves in his lens, a couple of years ago set himself the ambitious task of going to Tibet and trying his luck there – you never know, suddenly on one of the steep paths the silhouette of the legendary animal flashes. The project received the pretentious name “Velvet Queen”, and in order not to languish with boredom on long and exhausting transitions, Munier also took Sylvan Tesson, a professional lover of all kinds of extreme sports, as well as Russia, which is, so to speak, the absolute embodiment of the action-packed lifestyle.
In the domestic box office, The Velvet Queen was traditionally renamed – now Munier’s pensive creation is straightforwardly called In Search of the Snow Leopard, they tried to save the unpopular documentary film with the “seals”, for which, as you know, there is always a stable demand. Alas, for more than an hour and a half, the “seals” practically do not seem to have a wet nose, but the landscapes familiar to us from Windows splash screens are full. Among other entertainments, there are children of Tibet in national attire – also, by the way, who have repeatedly appeared in the same screensavers shimmering and oozing with appeasement, yaks of Tibet and the storytellers themselves, engaged in hilarious conversation.
– What peace! – Meunier declares meaningfully and somewhat sadly, perched on another boulder.
What a will! – echoes him wrapped in a dozen scarves, like his compatriots on the Berezina, Tesson.
But there is no happiness – a continuation suggests itself, but instead Tesson draws in with a strong accent “Black Eyes”.
In general, the picture obtained by friends invites you to think about Russia almost every minute. And the point here is not only in natural boredom, which at some point turns into melancholy, but also in the surroundings. It is cold, lonely, the winds howl in the boundless icy space, the voice-over explains: “The search for the snow leopard requires contempt for physical suffering, neglect of the climate, faith in victory…” The snow leopard, thus, can be easily replaced by the meaning of life, a special way, the triumph of socialism. The context has. The presence of Sylvan Tesson, who in the past decade searched the forests of Siberia and Baikal for about the same thing, plus the Russian soul, famous for its ability to strike at a senseless and merciless Zen, only strengthens us in the legitimacy of parallels. Tesson’s travel notes sold well in France and were full of a play of melodious and untranslatable words: la bathhouse, la dacha, le stagnation, la perestroika, le apparatchik. Now here is the snow leopard, the irbis, reminiscent of the le Iblis, recently, thanks to Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, entered the Russian colloquial speech.
Of course, it is worth noting that this picture is strong not only by latent Russophilia. The search for the snow leopard is voiced by the music of Nick Cave, which, perhaps in itself, is tuned to higher matters, but coupled with the visual side, unfortunately, it looks like the melodies most often found in massage parlors.
It is possible that at another time and in other circumstances, the domestic audience would have been able to rest their souls, contemplating a blizzard, a blizzard, a drifting snow and the vague ghosts of snow leopards, but today in Russia there are other contenders for our attention that we want to watch, habitually without disturbing them.
In theaters from 6 July
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