The very first moment I saw Garpastum I couldn't avoid thinking of other big directors: Michalkov and Tarkovskij. A story of a nation, a state at the moment of its(re)birth told through a simple story of boys and their compassion for soccer. (Garpastum comes from a Latin word "harpastum": a ball-game from which soccer origins.) The story is strangely both historical and ahistorical - it seems it could take place no matter when and where. In fact, it is not so. A small hints given in conversation (Gavrilo going to Sarajevo, a lion that escaped from the ZOO, socialist revolution..) create an exact time frame that is necessarily connected with the location of St. Petersburg. Taking place in some other time it would most probably lose its charm. The extraordinary capacity of Alexey German for capturing this era and its mood pleases the eye. Every picture, every scene is filmed very thoughtfully, keeping its poetry without losing rhythm and becoming only a slide of photographs with nothing to say.
