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Dust (2001 film)
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Wikipedia article
Centuries and continents intertwine in an intricate tapestry in 'Dust', an epic written and directed by the Academy-award nominated Milcho Manchevski.
The UK-Italian-German-Spanish-Macedonian co-production, photographed by the Academy nominee Barry Ackroyd, stars Joseph Fiennes, David Wenham, Adrian Lester, Rosemary Murphy, Nikolna Kujaca, Anne Brochet, and Vera Farmiga. It was the opening-night film of the 2001 Venice Film Festival and was later released in a number of countries, including the United States.
Dust caused quite a lot of stir; some of the reactions:
* Manchevski is a cubist of the silver screen.
(The Globe and Mail)
* Rare visual intelligence.
(Village Voice)
* A potent, assured and ambitious piece of filmmakingTheres enough culture clash that Dust oesnt need the equivalent of a Zen koan.
(Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times)
* An extraordinary TransContinental, TransCentennial epic. Director Milcho Manchevski is a real original.
(Whats On in London)
* Manchevski uses diverse characters and a fragmented narrative structure to create a mosaic in which the details of history are subjective, contradictory, and illusory, and recollections are repeatedly altered to suit the desires of the storytellers.
(Roderick Coover, Film Quarterly)
* An investigation into the nature of storytelling, twisting and fracturing his narrative and using jarringly disjunctive images to pull the past and present into a Moebius strip of cruelty, retribution and hope of heaven.
(Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide)
* High-end surreal western
(stopklatka.pl)
Plot
'Where Does Your Voice Go When Youre No More?'
A New York thief (Edge), a tough-as-nails hundred-year-old woman (Angela), two brothers from the Wild West (Luke and Elijah), a revolutionary hell-bent on liberating Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire (The Teacher), and a beautiful pregnant woman (Neda), all cross paths in a tale that spans two continents and three centuries. Its fractured narrative resembles a Cubist painting.
Cast
* Joseph Fiennes as Elijah
* David Wenham as Luke
* Adrian Lester as "Edge"
* Rosemary Murphy as Angela
* Vera Farmiga as Amy
* Anne Brochet as Lilith
* Nikolina Kujaca as Neda
* Vlado Jovanovski as The Teacher
* Josif Josifovski as The Priest
* Matt Ross as "Stitch"
* Salaetin Bilal as The Major
Production
The film was written and directed by Milcho Manchevski. The music for the film was composed by Kiril Dajkovski. Principal photography took place across three countries and two continents: Cologne, New York City, Mariovo, Shtip and Bitola.
After the international success of his debut Before the Rain, in 1995 Manchevski announced his next project, Dust. South Fork Pictures was producing, with Robert Redford and Michael Nozik as producers and Miramax as distributor. After a falling out between Manchevski and Miramax's Harvey Weinstein, the film was eventually made as a British-Italian-German-Spanish-Macedonian co-production with the Film Consortium's Chris Auty and Fandango Films' Domenico Procacci leading the charge.
Filming took part between April 2000 (New York) and October 2000 (Cologne and Macedonia). The film was edited in London in the fall/winter/spring 2000/2001.
Moving Picture Company provided visual effects and animation.
Release
'Dust' opened at the Venice Film Festival on 29 August 2001 and was later released in Italy on 5 April 2002. Path distributed the film in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2002. In Spain, the film was released on 12 July 2002 by Alta Classics. It was given a limited release in the United States on 22 August 2003, where it was distributed by Lionsgate.
Awards
Golden Reel Award Nomination (Best Sound Editing), 2002
Reception
Critical response
The film caused controversy when it premiered as the opening film of the 2001 Venice Film Festival. A number of critics accused Manchevski of having a political agenda and using the film to express it. 'The Evening Standard' critic Alexander Walker claimed the film was portraying the Turkish army in an unflattering light and even called it racist. Several other critics saw the film as taking sides in the current armed conflict in Macedonia, in spite of the fact that the film was filmed before the hostilities began. Charges were nevertheless leveled that Manchevski's film was anti-Moslem, anti-Albanian and anti-Turkish. He did not respond to the accusations in Venice, presumably hoping the film would speak for itself. He, however, did respond later, explaining that the film is even-handed in its portrayal of brutal killers it does not spare the Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Greeks or the Americans, for that matter. Even though the reviews (and even some of the original reviewers) were much more favorable and nuanced once the film moved from Venice to the regular theaters, the damage was done, and 'Dust' never achieved the wide distribution expected from the follow-up to the phenomenally successful 'Before the Rain'.Later, however, the film was reassessed in a number of essays focusing on its complex fractured narrative.
Accolades
References
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