2018
Film by Oleg Mavromatti
USA, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria 1:17:01 h
I saw a lot of great films this year, but not a single one hit me like “Semiconductor ”by Oleg Mavromatti. It has long been rumored that after the “Ostrich, Monkey and Grave” masterpiece, Oleg conceived something even more incredible, and the “Semiconductor” turned out to really be a daring leap into the deepest swamp of Russian madness.”
“Dmitry Volchek Radio “Svoboda “
SYNOPSIS
If I want to eat a piece of gingerbread I will choose one that is completely plain and not a piece which represents a baby in arms of a horserider, a piece which is covered over and over with decoration. “Ornament and Crime,” Adolf Loos, 1908
Anna Cadet, a video blogger and hobbyist, madly obsessed with railways and locomotives, unexpectedly meets a strange character — the wizard Kulebyakin– while recording her new vlog entry. At first, he seems to be a harmless eccentric, just like her: a steam locomotives lover. Anna sees no threat in his offer to join him witnessing a mysterious phenomenon at an abandoned factory. On the contrary, the romantically mooded Anna is ready for an exciting adventure that can help her get more subscribers in her YouTube channel.
But everything turns into an unexpected nightmare blurring the border between reality and schizophrenic delusions.
Is there Kulebyakin and is he really a wizard? After all, even Anna’s best girlfriend is convinced of the opposite. Maybe this wizard is just a bizarre illusory projection of her mind, overloaded with information? Is he a real human being, or just a cinematic cliché, an animated quotation from someone else’s story, a concentrate of fears suddenly awakened under the comfortable packaging of her seemingly innocent hobbyism? What is reality and can it be documented? And what means a sign, which had became an ornament that has lost its meaning; something that we pass by indifferently every day without noticing its hidden urge to crime … And finally – what does the sign on Anna’s hand mean?
Director and script writer: Oleg Mavromatti
Cast: Anna Den, Viktor Vin4 Lebedev
Camera: Anna Den, Viktor Vin4 Lebedev
Editing: Oleg Mavromatti and Boryana Rossa
Producers Boryana Rossa (SUPERNOVA) and Andrey Silvestrov (League of Experimental Cinema)
English translation: Boryana Rossa
PRESS
“I saw a lot of great films this year, but not a single one hit me like “Semiconductor ”by Oleg Mavromatti. It has long been rumored that after the “Ostrich, Monkey and Grave” masterpiece, Oleg conceived something even more incredible, and the “Semiconductor” turned out to really be a daring leap into the deepest swamp of Russian madness. In this swamp, writers Yuri Mamleev and Ilya Masodov caught fattened carassiuses, but Oleg Mavromatti drew out a giant fire-breathing crocodile from there.
A heroine who dreams of going to Kiev to celebrate the steam locomotive named Joseph Stalin is captured by ruthless demons! he grandiose acting work of Anna Den, transforming from a gentle angel into a witch, the hyper-realistic script, the futuristic montage – everything in this film is excellent. Do not miss!“
Dmitry Volchek Radio “Svoboda“
“Oleg Mavromatti’s films do not go to cineplexes and are rarely shown at festivals. Nevertheless, this is the best that is happening in Russian cinema, and there are no inoffensive words to call the selectors who reject them. The heroine of the “Semiconductor”, the romantic Anya Kadet, who is a video blogger who loves Soviet steam locomotives, plunges into the world of Russian wickedness.
The magnificent work of the leading actress Anna Den, clearly demonstrating the irreversible consequences of magic spells. Hitchcock could have made such a film based on the story of Mamleev. Or maybe it is Mamleev who retells Hitchcock’s film in his afterlife?”
Wind, ecstasy, water and nonhumans. The best films of 2018 (Januray 2019, Dmitri Volchek)
Oleg Mavromatti is nominated among the 25 most influential people in the Russian film scene for the last decade by Colta.ru critic Vassiliy Koretskiy. The Heroes of the Decade: Cinema
2019: 50 Most important Films of the Year (coolconnections.ru)
The best 10 horror movies of 2019 (Time Out Moscow)
The Year of National Self-discovery: Unobviously the Most Important Films of 2019 Gordei Petrik Kino-TV
УЖАС УЛЬТРАСОВРЕМЕННОСТИ: КАК НОВЫЕ ХОРРОРЫ ЭКСПЛУАТИРУЮТ ХАЙ-ТЕК И СОВРИСК
Catalog from the Russian premiere of “Semiconductor” March 2019, at the International Film Festival at Hanti-Manskijsk, “Spirit of Fire”.