email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

CANNES 2005 Directors’ Fortnight

Seven Invisible Men, A sad no man’s land

by 

Unlike the seven magnificents, Sharunas Bartas’ ‘invisible men’ are not trying to fight for justice but to flee away from it. The film starts as an exile : a small group of social outcasts leave the industrial landscapes of Crimea and drive through the steppe, for, as the sad song sung in the beginning says, these characters belong to a no man’s land —a liminal space between past and present, difference and identity, loneliness and the need to be together.
Thus, Seven Invisible Men is a kind of road movie, except it does not really matter if the characters are going straight ahead or driving round in circles. In the desert, these sad people (played by Dmitri Podnozov, Saakanush Vanyan, Aleksandr Esaulov, Igor Cygankov, Rita Klein, and Denis Kirilov) meet other outcasts. As the animals which people the steppes all do, they end up gathering in a flock. The heavy silence of the beginning is suddenly replaced by the din of an orgy, Russian style —like a squallid version of Pavel Lounguine’s The Wedding. Vodka after vodka, they laugh and cry and sing and, again, sink into despair. The initial purgatory turns into a hellish cleansing ritual.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

This film, produced by Paulo Branco, is a common project of the French production company Gémini Films (which is also handling international sales and distribution in France), Mandragoa Filmes (Portugal), and Kinema Studio (Lithuania), also in collaboration with Roaring Films (Netherlands).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy