"I am an eye. I am a mechanical eye.

I, a machine, I am showing you a world,

the likes of which only I can see"

-Dziga Vertov

Whilst countrymen Vertov and Alexander Sokurov could not be more disparate in their historical contexts or ideological leanings, both a subscribe to the theoretical ‘Kino-eye’, an all seeing lens capable of capturing ‘history’ with the live gaze of the camera. Vertov’s documentary cinema was made with the purpose of recording ‘truth’, time and place; Sokurov’s visual manifesto Russian Ark attempting to document location, a single place, however, suspends reality to create a film that transcends temporality and context. From its introductory frame to its last, there will not be one interruption, the film, a representation of history, spatiality and performativity taken ‘in one breath’. A single steadicam shot ushers the audience through different ‘scenes’ shot in one location, observing bygone eras and interacting with inhabitants of the past and present. The lens of the camera is offered as a gateway into a world that is no longer bound by temporality and historical context. Russian Ark was met with both critical and audience acclaim, celebrated for its unique cinematic structure and groundbreaking technical achievements. Immense and calculated use of set design, characterisation, camera movement and postproduction techniques such as manipulation of frame rates and colour grading, invest the film with meaning which would otherwise not be communicated without these elements of mise én scene.

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