The Stroll

One of the major events of recent world cinema was “Russian Ark,” a 96-minute, continuous camera-take touring the Winter Palace of the Czar in St. Petersburg, where costumed and choreographed re-enactors replayed episodes from Russian history. THE STROLL, made by members the rising Petr Fomenko Workshop theater troupe, can be considered a sunny riposte. Here is also St. Petersburg, not ghost-haunted but young and carefree, forward-looking, day-lit and buoyant, with a real-time, 90 minute narrative composed of long, hand-held digital sequences. It's a boy-meets-girl story, quite literally, as the shapely 22-year-old Olya disembarks from a car at the bridge over the Heba River and takes a walk. Straightaway she catches the eye of Alyosha, who starts chatting and proposes marriage within about 15 minutes. His buddy Petya, who joins them, is a little more guarded about the whole situation. Who is Olya and what's she really up to? Wear some comfortable shoes, comrades! (In Russian with English subtitles)