Dolomite and ash
Dina (30 y.o., film director, lives in Russia) for the shooting of her own film about the collective memory of innocently tortured ancestors finds an experimental musician Johan, the same age as Dina. Johan is German by blood but living in Belgium. Together they go on an expedition through modern Russia. Dina has a talent for using visual tools. Her element is cinema. She needs another person. She is looking for someone whose element is music and sound. For their expedition, she picks points on the map that evoke pain or excitement. They're shooting places of collective memory; with traces of pain, labor and loss. These places are mass graves of the repressed, a flooded city, dolomite quarries, destroyed churches, impenetrable forests. At each place she wants to capture the special energy of change. She also requires someone to act as her radar. A person who is devoid of Russian trauma, is unaware of the history of these places and thus a different other sign-system. Dina and Johan learn to interact with space and with each other. He is fascinated by her, her generosity and ability to guide him through the most complex of tasks. She admires his sensitivity and courage to relate with the world so directly. Their movements, their contact with others, joint conversations and of course the work lead them to mutual love, which they perceive as a blessing. Even when they disagree on locations, ideas, filming methods, they still only crave intimacy, and perceive their discrepancies as errors. A feeling of love arises between them. But to her this film is a prayer and for him it is a research.
