Ruslan Fedotow
Portugal, Hungary, Belgium | 2023 | 28 min
World premiere
Language : Portuguese
Subtitles : English, French

Rui lives alone on the outskirts of Lisbon, making a living from illegal fishing. He sells his crabs door to door by the kilo. Using dazzling chiaroscuro effects with an impressionist touch, Ruslan Fedotow gradually reveals the daily life of a man struggling with drug addiction, and his fight to stay in touch with his son who is being kept away from him.

Young Rui lives alone on the outskirts of Lisbon, eking out a living from illegal fishing, selling his crabs door to door by the kilo. Sometimes people buy them, often not. His daily life is structured, but above all paralysed, by an addiction to drugs that prevents him from moving on – despite numerous attempts to break free and quit. Gradually, director Ruslan Fedotow – whose work as director of photography has already been presented at Visions du Réel – exposes the daily life of a struggling man, and his fight, in spite of everything, to stay in touch with his son, who is being kept from him. One evening, during the Christmas festivities, he faces a crucial choice: whether to lose himself once again to drugs and partying, or to break the vicious circle and try to reconnect with his family. By recalling his own experiences and the death of his alcoholic brother, the director uses impressionistic touches to create a moving tale that advances, like Rui, between the real and the unreal, between attempts to hang on to reality or disappear into the shadows of the night and of oneself. Following Rui means “capturing his struggle with a reality in which he cannot find his place”.
Charlotte Serrand

Long Long Nights, 2023
Away, 2022
Where Are we Headed?, 2021
Songs For Kit, 2017
Salamanca, 2015
 

Trailer

Photography
Ruslan Fedotow
Sound
Andrey Dergachev
Editing
Ruslan Fedotow
Production
Ruslan Fedotow
Sales contact
Ruslan FedotowSPITZMAUSrukospk@gmail.com

International Medium Length & Short Film Competition

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