Sirs and Misters

Year

2013

Country

Ukraine

Duration

35’

Director

Oleksandr Techynsky

A museum guide, a military man, a bank clerk, an aircraft mechanic and other desperate Ukrainian men from all over the country get together every fall to work as porters during the pilgrimage of Hasidim to the town of Uman. Within four days, tens of thousands of Hasidim flock together to this tiny town – in a celebrating mood, singing, dancing and… bringing enormous amounts of baggage with them. Throughout these four days, the local porters sleep no more then three hours a night in handmade tents along the side of the road, while they spend the rest of the time carrying tons of loads to earn more than twice their usual monthly salaries. On their way, they have to reach mutual understanding with their almost ‘alien’ clients, as well as with each other. However, it seems that no burdens can suppress their optimism and humor. Finally, they are sure – “The Lord God knows what he's doing”.

Production and Sales

Honest Fish Documentary Stories, Yulia Serdyukova, vul. Naberezhno-Korchuvatska, 82, kv. 30, 03045 Kyiv, Ukraine, +380 67 240 21 39, [email protected], www.honestfish.com.ua

Director

Oleksandr Techynsky

Oleksandr Techynsky was born in 1979 in Dnipropetrovsk. He spent childhood in the Sakha Republic, Yakutia. In 1999 he graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Medical College, then he worked as a medical assistant in a psychiatric emergency team. In 2001 he left medicine and started to work as a freelance photographer. Since 2005 has worked at the Kommersant-Ukraine daily newspaper. In 2010 he left Kommersant and focused on his own documentary projects, including photography and film. Sirs and Misters is his first film.

Сеанси

11 October 2013, Armiansk;

09 October 2013, Bakhchisarai;

11 October 2013, Bakhchisarai;

14-31 October 2013, Bakhchisarai;

18 October 2013, Bakhchisarai;

10 October 2013, Dzhankoysky region;

17 October 2013, Dzhankoysky region;

24 October 2013, Dzhankoysky region;

31 October 2013, Dzhankoysky region;

29 October 2013, Donetsk;

16 October - 09 November 2013, Mykiyivka;