Ward No. 6 (Palata N° 6)

Year: 2009
Country: RUSSIA
Run Time: 83 minutes

In WARD NO. 6 the physician leads a documentary film crew through the mental hospital, stopping to chat with patients along the way. The off-camera interviewer asks, "What has happened to Dr. Ragin?" And why is he now a patient in the mental hospital where he was once the chief doctor? As the camera shifts to Dr. Ragin, we see a quiet, sad-eyed man wearing a bathrobe. He doesn't speak. And what we learn in this pseudo-documentary, which deliberately blurs the lines between fiction and reality, is that the doctor cares little about medicine or the patients for whom he was responsible. That is, until he meets a patient he believes is a prophet. The film, based on Anton Chekhov's 1892 short story, combines interviews with real patients and actors speaking Chekhov's words. Visual storytelling – creating "home movies" and having Dr. Ragin's friends and colleagues talk directly to the camera – effectively paints a portrait of a man who slowly loses touch with the reality around him. (In Russian with subtitles) – C.K.

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