An award-winning film from Russian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, Portrait is an evocative snapshot of a disappearing way of life.

A timeless film about human dignity and grace, Portrait consists of what at first appear to be photographs of Russian peasants and farmers. But as we watch the carefully composed scenes, small details in the background begin to catch our eye - the rustling of tree leaves, water flowing in a stream. The peasants, mostly elderly men and women, stand in their everyday clothes, often with tools by their side, looking into the camera. Occasionally someone shifts their weight, or turns slightly, or blinks.

Evoking the photographic portraits of August Sander or Dorothea Lange, this remarkable short film captures a people, and a world, that is quickly vanishing. With poetic rigor and stunning black-and-white cinematography, Portrait offers us a thoughtful meditation on man and nature, city and country, old Russia and new.

Directed by Sergei Loznitsa
2002 (US, 2006), 28 minutes
Purchase: $195 Rental: $65

* Winner, Best Documentary, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2003
* Winner, Grand Prize, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, 2003
* Winner, Best Short Film, Les Ecrans Documentaires Film Festival, 2003
* Winner, Silver Dove, International Leipzig Festival for Documentary Film, 2002
* Official Selection, Mar del Plata Film Festival, 2005
* Official Selection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2004
* Official Selection, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2003
* Official Selection, DocPoint Film Festival, 2003
* Official Selection, Message to Man Film Festival, St.Petersburg, 2003
* Official Selection, Chicago International Documentary Film Festival, 2002
* Official Selection, Seattle International Film Festival, 2002

“Portrait is provocative exactly because it plays with those clichés and with the artifices of traditional portraiture of iconic 'peasants.'” - Slavic Review

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