Oleg y las raras artes

Oleg y las raras artes, Andrés Duque, Spain, 2016, 70'. DCP

Is it possible to portray a genius? Does documentary cinema have that ability to record "which there is beyond images, sounds and gestures"? Oleg Nikolaevitch Karavaichuk was a child prodigy who was trained at the conservatory in Leningrad, played the piano for Stalin and throughout his life has written music mainly for theatre and cinema. At 89, he is a disconcerting, admired and unique figure in Russian culture: once a week, Oleg walks behind closed doors through the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg to play the gold plated imperial grand piano, as if he was a descendant of Tsar Nicolas II, as if we were standing before a character from another time.

The unique way that Andrés Duque observes behind the camera portrays Oleg Karavaichuk’s unique way of playing the piano. And just when it looks as though the attempt will prove impossible and disappear in the vast regions of the Hermitage or the tundra, something happens in front of the camera and cinema, observation and the rare arts recover their full meaning.

Grand Prize at the Punto de Vista Film Festival in Navarre, the Talents Award and mention by the critics at the D'A Barcelona International Auteur Film Festival, Best Soundtrack at the Festival Cinéma du Réel in Paris.