Winner of awards in festivals such as DOK Leipzig, Ekaterinburg FF, Krakow IFF and Lyon IFF, Sergei Loznitsa's documentary is a rather abstract film, that uses the metaphor of the train and the train station to comment on the transition of Russia from the Yeltsin era to the Putin era, and the subsequent involvement of the IMF in the transition towards a market-oriented economy.
Midnight Traveler is screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
The black and white short is shot exclusively inside the waiting room of a train station, where, however, all the people waiting seem to be asleep. Furthermore, the sounds of the trains passing do not seem to bother them at all, and soon, the only noise heard comes from snoring and from buzz flying, which essentially provide the soundtrack of the movie.
Pavel Kostomarov's camera closes up on the plethora of people, who seem to come from all aspects of Russian society, including a mother whose young child is sleeping in the most incredulous way in her lap, essentially half-standing.
The rather thin context here comes from a combination of metaphor and abstractedness. That despite their social status, everyone is sitting together in the same place, in the same capacity, sends a message of equality, that the whole of Russian society is facing this upcoming change together, which is mirrored in the passing trains. That they keep sleeping no matter what goes on seems to state on their unwillingness to act, essentially stoically waiting for the change to happen, without having any kind of impact on the when and the how it will.
Probably the most appealing part of the film is the atmosphere, with the intense monochrome and the somewhat blurry images inducing the narrative with the sense of mystery on what is going on. If one was to interpret this approach in genre film terms, one could imply that they are all dead, or at least the ones that are not snoring, since the presence of flies also points towards this direction. And in some way, they may actually be.
“The Train Stop”, just like “The Bus Stop” is a very difficult film to watch, as its approach is somewhere between the movie and an art installation, essentially addressing, for the most part, students and hard-core film buffs. There is however, power in those almost dialogue-less images, particularly for the viewer who is willing to immerse in them, leaving any preconceptions on what film is behind.
