Synopsis
Summer on the waterfront: a nice beach, modern conveniences, sugary cocktails? Nothing of the sort on the pier of the Ukrainian port of Apolonovka. The bay is filled to the brim with refuse, chiefly from bombs and mines left by past wars. The view from the wharf is marred by grey warships, which secrete a tar-like goo when the wind blows the wrong way. Nevertheless, urban life largely takes place on the dreary concrete blocks of the pier. Groups of young people loiter in the blazing sun; they flirt and hold diving competitions. Elderly men and women swim a few laps in the morning hours. Like in his Joris Ivens Award-winning Wasteland, Andrei Schwartz plays with his role as a documentary filmmaker in The Pier of Apolonovka. He lets the subjects of his film react to his presence. "Is this an amateur movie?" a boy asks. Schwartz also gives assignments now and then, like the old woman whom he asks to talk with a man about a concert. He shot the footage with a meandering camera and incorporated it all into a loose, associative structure. This is summer in Apolonovka: relaxed and unrestricted.
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