Chastie

This is not a documentary in the traditional sense, rather a lyrical film about the day-to-day life on the Kazakh steppes, incorporating documentarily shot images. The film consists of thirty sequences that demonstrate that even the most elementary activities (eating, sleeping) can possess a great beauty, bliss and especially humour. The Kazakh filmmaker Sergei Dvortsevoy shot his film in three months, making use of no less than four cameramen. He entitled his meticulously framed film chastie - paradise -, which, in a period when most film products from the former Soviet Union were characterised by a melancholy look at life, is evidence of a great sense of humour, to say the least.