“Okhotnik”, when everything changes

The Festival de Cannes is pleased to present Bakur Bakuradze’s second feature, Okhotnik (The Hunter) at Un Certain Regard. The Georgian director deals with similar themes to those of his first film, looking at the day-to-day existence of a man whose life is turned upside-down by a woman.

Okhotnik (The Hunter) tells the story of Ivan Douanev, a father who fills his time by taking care of his pig farm and hunting.
What happens when someone new comes into his life, disrupting his long-held routines? Bakur Bakuradze already raised these issues in his first film Shultes, which was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2008. Although the setting of the second film is different in terms of time and place, the director is using the same codes. Shultes was the story of a former athlete turned pickpocket after a traumatic road accident. One day, the former sportsman receives a cassette from a young women he had stolen from. The chance encounter with a stranger’s life and emotions leads to risky decisions and a break with old habits. In Bakur Bakuradze’s second feature, Ivan Douanev also has his life turned upside-down when two women come to work on his farm.

Bakuradze has spoken about this focus on a man’s life transformed by someone new, explaining: “If a man feels the need to stand out, not becoming just another figure like all the rest in the general distress, but instead finding himself in his own thoughts, his own responsibility; if he allows himself to be guilty, accepts to feel, trust and act, this man can become a hero.”

A.C.

The film is being screened at 11 am and 5 pm, Debussy Theatre.