Manifesto of the Stone upon the Water
14-minute non-narrative film by Vladimir Davidia and Anna Selivanova

Fourteen minutes of cinematic manifesto are written in the dark languages of the eroticized body, oneiric imagery, and painting.
Each image, each gesture, each painterly stroke is born from darkness by the will of chance, and therefore carries the utmost precision of expression and the inevitability of prophecy.

Each of these languages at times slips away from the singular time of Chronos, at times tears it apart. And therefore these are languages not only of precision, but also of resistance. And the most important of them — painting — the most useless and therefore the freest of all the arts. The only true sign of the downfall of the Occident can be the death of painting. And what leads to death is the loss of ground.

The ground of European culture was the stone. But this stone, serving as the ground of everything upon it, crushed everything beneath it. The forces that broke through from beneath the stone flooded it. The revolt against the stone is as just as it is tragic. Everything deprived of ground loses the strength to resist, its capacity for freedom, and its voice. Everything that has no ground is flooded by the indifferent current of Chronos.

We enact a symbolic gesture — we return the stone. But the stone must now stand upon the water.

“Manifesto of the Stone upon the Water“ is both a prophecy and a manifesto about painting. And it is painting itself.

Crew

Written, Directed, Shot, and Edited by Vladimir Davidia & Anna Selivanova

Sound design by Vladimir Davidia

Assistant: Alyona Korolyatina

Cast

Lead Actress: Diana Aitova 

With appearances by: Vladimir Davidia, Anna Selivanova, Alyona Korolyatina