In the Dark 2004

Sergey Dvortsevoy, the major minimalist among contemporary documentarians, moves from the rural settings of his acclaimed Bread Day, Highway and Chastie, into a potently symbolic pocket of life in the city. In a claustrophobic Moscow apartment, a blind man and a cat filll each other's days. The old man makes shopping bags out of string, while the cat lingers above and below, waiting to unravel his efforts. In short time we're drawn into the sporadic flurries and lulls of a battle that feels as though it's been running for years. Afterwards, the man ties to hand out his bags on the street, seemingly unaware that his little cottage industry has long since been made obsolete by modern inventions. — BG

"Through a few days in the life of one man, one cat, and one filmmaker, In the Dark quietly observes a post-Communist (and seemingly pre-capitalist) Russia still lingering in the past, with no eye for the future." — Tribeca Film Festival