Yulia Iskhakova's and Aleksandr Chernov's shots in Zagorz

Date: 14.09.2005 – 23.09. 2005
Director: Julia Ischakova
Camera Operator: Aleksandr Czernov
Local Fixer: Lukasz Kluskiewicz

Hello!

When we had arrived to Zagorz and had done the documentation work, we got that we couldn’t find the main hero who would be interesting for the film. We decided then that our film will be a portrait of the city, not of a one man, and that we will realize this idea through the interviews with the inhabitants.

Anyway we still needed a hero who would link all the stories. We chose for this function a local postmen. He – while doing his everyday job – will lead us through the city and introduce us to the people.

Zagorz is a small, provincial town on the Polish-Ukrainian-Slovak border. Most of the trains find its final stop here. You can only come back to Sanok or go to Ukraine (where only one railway goes) from here...

People come to Zagorz, when they want find some peaceful and quiet place. Inhabitants seem to be happy with the slow rhythm of life. Old people find it to be the place from their childhood dreams and they want to stay here. Young people long for another world – the world of big cities, better perspectives and chances to go on. They run away from unemployment, the bore of the province and… the lack of canalisation.

The material we have could be also used for another film - one about people working on a film in a small town. We could show the work of the directing film from behind the curtain. We would show different reactions of people we invited to work with us, our ups and downs and how the inhabitants where interested in what was going on. It would be our reflexion on the sense of our work, with some ironic comment.

We would like to say “thank you” to our local fixer, Lukasz Kluskiewicz and to Anna Wachel and Dominika Duda.