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Beyond The Ocean

2000, Movie, NR, 87 mins

Beyond The Ocean: Review

BEYOND THE OCEAN | TAM ZA OKEANOM
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Darkly dream-like and haunting, Tony Pemberton's debut feature, shot in Tarusa, Russia, and New York City, tells a deceptively simple story that becomes increasingly complex and disturbing as it unfolds. A young Russian woman, Pitsee (Dasha Volga), arrives in New York penniless, five months pregnant and looking for her boyfriend, Sasha (Rik Nagel). She finds him quickly enough, but his first question is whether the baby is his and the second is how she can be sure. He also confesses that he has a girlfriend — though he hedges his bets by saying they're breaking up — and tells Pitsee she can't stay with him. Sasha — who now prefers to be called Alex, in the American fashion — fobs Pitsee off on his flaky friend Dogwalker (Sage), a trip-hop DJ who works with Alex in a Union Square record shop. He also gets her a job working for his uncle, Seva (Peter Von Berg), who owns a small knick-knack shop. Over the course of several weeks, Pitsee must decide what to do with her life, as Alex vacillates between neglecting her and flying into possessive rages when he suspects someone else is interested. At the same time, a second story is unfolding through Pitsee's memories of a Russian childhood so bleak it has the air of a cruel fairy tale, an impression furthered by the depiction of her recollections in harshly beautiful black and white. The unwanted child of a slatternly, angry mother (Elena Antimonova) and a largely absent father (Alexei Hardikov), Pitsee (played at age four by Rita Kamina and as an adolescent by Tatiana Kamina) is shunted from relative to relative and from urban to rural poverty. She develops a creepily close bond with her troubled uncle Aloysha (Donovan Barton); it ends with his death — perhaps by suicide, perhaps by murder, but certainly by violence. Pitsee's American adventure is almost entirely an internal one, and it's surprisingly engrossing. Volga has a quietly charismatic presence, and Pemberton's seductive cinemascope cinematography and discrete direction, underscored by Austrian electronica composer Christian Fennesz's beguiling soundtrack, create the impression of having wandered into someone else's unnervingly lucid dream. Pemberton's background is in avant garde shorts, but despite its floating narrative, this is a remarkably accessible and haunting film. (In English and Russian with subtitles.) leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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