The Way Out.
Short. 33 min.
Elina Amromina performed the main role (providing also a singing voice for her character) and also worked as second director, set and production manager and editor.
The Grand Prix at the “Reflections of Spirit” Festival in Erlangen, Germany. 68th Cannes Film Festival. Short Film Corner, Presentation at the Russian Pavilion at Cannes Festival. Winner at the Near Nazareth Festival in Israel, Award of Merit at the The Best Shorts Competition (La Jolla, CA, USA), Nominated for the best long short film at the Short Film Awards, New-York, nominated for the best script at the The Monthly Film Festival in Glasgow, UK, "The Way Out" nominated for the best short film, best director and Best Actress at the Chicago Film Festival "BlowUp", Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Nominated for best foreign language short film and best director at the International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema London. Best Actor at the The Short Awards (USA), Platinum Winner for the Best Actress in a Leading Role (USA). The film participate in Privi Kadar film festival, Roving Eye Flickers'Rhode Island Film Festival.
Storyline:
Almost all the Jews get deported or killed in the first weeks of the Nazi's occupation of a city. A theater director (ethnically German) rescues and hides an opera diva, Jewess, from the Nazis in the cellar of the theater. The Nazi commandant begins hunting for hidden Jews and the opera diva is the most wanted one. After the Nazi patrol has witnessed the opera diva at the entrance of the theater, the Nazi commandant issues an ultimatum to the director of the theater: the director is required either to bring the opera diva to the Nazi Commandant's office or is promised to be shot. The theater director and the opera diva are trying to find the way out on their own way.
PRESS:
A beautiful film that caught our attention and kept us stuck in front of the screen. It would be hard and probably unfair to compare anyone to the great classical Russian directors or to compare them to anyone but this WWII drama actually reminded us of Tarkovsky’s or Nikita Mihalkov’s films. Mikhail Uchitelev’s film has something of the same ‘military’ discipline of the great above mentioned directors. His film emanates a similar romanticism, a similar attention to acting and what is expressed through acting and a similar conservatory spirit that you can sense in Mikhail Uchitelev’s scenic movement, his taste for music and his attention on outlining the characters.
Actors do a great job expressing anything that is needed beyond the dialogue, the sets are credible, cinematography is good and the emotion flowing. It lasted for 30 minutes however we felt like after a feature. The film is entertaining, it has action, drama and suspense and a few twists that keeps the viewer motivated. (THE FESTIVAL REVIEW)
The theme is not new, but Mikhail managed to show it in his own way - very soulfully and personally, through the moral choice of the two main characters, which were very accurately played by the actor Alexander Alekseev and the opera director, actress and singer Elina Amromina.
The film allows you to feel how the occupation begins, as tension increases with every minute. This is helped by music, and the pace of action, and the changing of light. (STRELA)
To the Holocaust, many artists have addressed to warn people against cruelty, xenophobia, hatred. Mikhail Uchitelev solved this topic in a completely different way. He created a rather romantic story, in which he placed several characters during the WWII...
...The general color of the film can be compared with the works of Tintoretto, with their strong contrasts and richness of colors
The beautiful opera music sounds in the film - as the ultimate embodiment of the art world, opposed to the brutal murder machine. As a result of their clash appears an ode to the theater, to the art. (ST PETERSBURG EVENING POST)