The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov

THE SWAN SONG OF FEDOR OZEROV, the debut of Belarusian director Yuri Semashko, currently living in exile in Poland, is a Lithuanian-German co-production made with a mini-budget and a troupe of young enthusiasts, which is similarly characterized by benevolent humor and violence that shimmers through. While outside, there is the threat of a Third World War and his sister goes to demonstrate, Fedor only has music on his mind - and an inspiration-promising lucky sweater. He searches for it obsessively, ending up in the homes of friends, women and strangers, in conversation with bizarre characters full of fear and ego, all in search of like-minded people and some intimacy as the end of the world draws nigh. This portrait of a creative generation defying the gravity of the world and the real horror of oppressive systems won the Tagesspiegel Readers' Jury Award.(bw)