From filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky comes an epic, intimate and poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction – and offer hope for survival and a way forward. Centering on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, Kossakovsky uses the circle to reflect on the rise and fall of civilisations, capturing breathtaking imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to AD 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023. Rocks and stone connect the disparate societies, from ghostly monoliths stuck in the earth to tragic heaps of concrete rubble waiting to be hauled off and repurposed anew. Through Kossakovsky’s inquisitive lens, the grandeur and folly of humanity and its precarious relationship with nature posits the urgent question: How do we build, and how can we build better, before it’s too late?

Cast & Crew
Producer: Heino Deckert
Director: Victor Kossakovsky
Script: Victor Kossakovsky
Director of Photography: Ben Bernhard
Music: Evgueni Galperine
Sound: Alexander Dudarev
Editors: Victor Kossakovsky, Ainara Vera
Production: Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktions GmbH

Victor Kossakovsky
Born in 1961,
Victor Kossakovsky began his career in motion pictures at the Leningrad Studio of Documentaries as assistant cameraman, assistant director and editor in 1978. In many of his films Kossakovsky plays the role of editor, cinematographer, writer, and director. He graduated from the Higher Courses of Film Writers and Directors in Moscow in 1988. In 1993, his first feature Belovy won both the VPRO Joris Ivens Award and the Audience Award at the International Documentary FF Amsterdam. Other awards include the Special Jury Award at the International Documentary FF Amsterdam for Pavel and Lyalya in 1999, the Documentary Award at the Edinburgh IFF for Wednesday, the Award of Honor at Karlovy Vary IFF for Wednesday, the DOK Leipzig Findling Award for Pavel and Lyalya, the True Vision Award at the 2012 True/False FF and the Genziana d'Oro – Gran Premio Città di Trento at the Trento FF (2012) for ¡Vivan Las Antípodas! He has begun his own film production company in St. Petersburg, Kossakovsky Film Production with the objective of creating a cinema of poetics and reality. His previous film, Gunda, premiered in the Encounters section at the 2020 Berlinale and was nominated for the European Film Award.

Filmography
Losev (1990), These Days (1991), The Belovs (1993), Wednesday 19.7.1961 (1997), Pavel and Lyalya (1998), Wedding (2000), Kindergarten (2000), Hush! (2002), Russia from My Window (2003), Svyato (2005), ¡Vivan las Antipodas! (2011), Demonstration (2014), Short Plays (segment Russia, 2014), Graine de champion (2016), Aquarela (2018), Gunda (2020), Architecton (2024).