The film has essentially two main scenes: an interrogation scene with a suspected thief and a celebration scene surrounding the protagonist’s departure to Canada. There is a scene in between these two about the titular stone cross Ivan erects. The first prolonged interrogation scene struck me most. It captured the dynamics of power: capturer and captive. The captive unquestionably believed he would die and so we get to see him process, through alcohol, his proximity to death. We also observe his captors, with cultural specifics to a hyper small village like this. The stone cross’s erection and subsequent extended festivities failed to connect to me in a broader conceptual sense. The celebration/going-away party was particularly unstructured and just kinda swayed through sentiments. Ultimately, i never fully latched onto our protagonist and so his journey was always, at least, at arms length.
The film has essentially two main scenes: an interrogation scene with a suspected thief and a celebration scene surrounding the protagonist’s departure to Canada. There is a scene in between these two about the titular stone cross Ivan erects. The first prolonged interrogation scene struck me most. It captured the dynamics of power: capturer and captive. The captive unquestionably believed he would die and so we get to see him process, through alcohol, his proximity to death. We also observe his captors, with cultural specifics to a hyper small village like this. The stone cross’s erection and subsequent extended festivities failed to connect to me in a broader conceptual sense. The celebration/going-away party was particularly unstructured and just kinda swayed through sentiments. Ultimately, i never fully latched onto our protagonist and so his journey was always, at least, at arms length.
