Tristia - A Black Sea Odyssey

During his exile on the banks of the Black Sea, the Roman poet Ovid wrote his famous lamentations, the . German-Polish filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha undertook a journey along the coast of the Black Sea using the same title, visiting seven countries and meeting a host of remarkable people. The result is a kaleidoscopic, tragicomic impression of the peoples and contemporary history of this volatile region. Abrupt transitions heighten the contrasts: an athletic young man turns summersaults in the waves on command, then a chubby elderly lady in a bathing suit talks about how she survived the siege of Leningrad during World War II. An elegant young woman sketches her ideal man, while icons of saints and dead soldiers are set up in caves. Outside huge statues of Lenin glisten in the sunlight. A dog jumps for joy, and a young bear taken from the wild is playful now, but according to his owner will one day become deadly. Mucha gets up close to everyone and everything with his camera and microphone: Ukrainian fishermen, Turkish tea pickers, old postcards, beautiful rock formations, picturesque harbors, healing mud baths, metal detectors on the beach, piles of wood washed ashore during storms, frank exchanges of views on whores and gays, flea markets selling Nazi paraphernalia and the megalomaniacal preparations for the Sochi Winter Games.