A 1966 Soviet cat-and-mouse where the hunter becomes the haunted.
Screen adaptation of Yuri Nagibin's novel of the same name about a gamekeeper who pursues a poacher.
Cinematography
Bleak Russian forests shot like they're judging everyone.
Acting
Eryomenko's silence screams louder than dialogue.
Director
Valeri Isakov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Khrushchev Thaw when Soviet cinema briefly flirted with moral ambiguity before Brezhnev slammed the door shut.
Director Isakov was primarily a documentarian; this was his rare fiction foray, explaining the almost ethnographic attention to hunting rituals.
SU
