TIMEKEEPER essay film / 2022
The writer and director of the film is preoccupied with the idea of making a film about Velimir Khlebnikov, who is perhaps the most mysterious Russian poet of the Silver Age and an equally remarkable mathematician, who believed it was possible to predict future wars. Immersed in this process she loses sleep and at some point the project seems to come to a dead end. So, the director starts writing letters to Khlebnikov, who died 100 years ago. She describes to him various scenes from the film that doesn’t exist.
A film to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the poet’s death.
"I did not sleep for what feels like eternity. One of the side effects of insomnia is: the past merges with the present, and the future seems empty. I go to bed in one place and in the morning I find myself on the other end of the world, in different places: Italia, Russia, Sahara, Kalmykia. It was here for the first time I learned the name of Velimir Khlebnikov."
Filmed in: Astrakhan, Bari, Berlin, Kalmyia, Marrakesh, Matera, Omsk, Rome, Sahara, St. Petersburg, Tangier.
Cameras: Arri Amira, Blackmagic Production 4K, Canon EOS C300, Sony Alpha 6300, DJI Drone
Support: Astrakhan Ministerium of Culture, DAAD, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, University of the Arts Berlin, ARRI, Sud Sound Studio Rome
© Kristina Paustian, Voices Films
Format: 2K, color
Length: 73 min
Language: English, Russian
Production Countries
Germany, Russia, Italy
Producers
Margarita Amineva, Tamara Bogdanova, Yanna Buryak, Paolo Maria Spina, Darya Susak
Script, editing, executive production
Kristina Paustian
Director of Photography
Sarah Yona Zweig
Kristina Paustian
Yuri Tokarev
Music by
Oren Ambarchi
Founded by
The Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Elsa-Neumann-Stipend, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB) and the Robert Bosch Foundation
Technical Support
ARRI, SUD SOUND STUDIO ROME
Realised at
The Künstlerhaus Lukas, Urbane Künste Ruhr in Germany
Production Companies
Voices Films, Kinokult, Mimesis, Revolver














