How I Ended This Summer

Synopsis: Summer is waning and two men, the intimidatingly gruff Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis) and Pavel, (Grigory Dobrygin) his young inexperienced assistant are stationed on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean where their duty is to take meteorological readings daily. Little happens but when Pavel receives a radio message that Sergei’s family have been seriously injured in an accident he can’t bring himself to tell the older man.

How I Ended This Summer is a film for devotees of art cinema for, make no mistake, little happens, or is even said, by its only two characters and the main agenda is observation. Observation rather than reflection, for writer-director Popogrebsky is not concerned with philosophical but rather psychological matters. Time and the seasons are certainly essential aspects of the film, which is superbly photographed by Pavel Kostomarov, but more as opponents of man in all his frailty rather than constituting the fabric of his existence. Unrelenting harshness, barrenness and solitariness are words that come to mind in watching this slowly unfolding story, something which, particularly with a running time of over 2 hours, makes for challenging viewing. Yet despite a somewhat questionable third act that introduces some dramatic action, and to which the film’s poster rather misleadingly alludes, Aleksei Popogrebsky's film is a quite intriguing experience.

The source of the intrigue is very much the relationship between the two men.  Sergei embodies the classically combative, almost paranoid male view of Nature as something which must be subdued and survived. With echoes of the Communist era in his world view he is acutely aware of his duty and revels in his peasant robustness. Pavel is his opposite – a college student who apparently has taken his post in order to work up an essay for the summer break, who listens to rock music and plays video games to pass the time. Grigory Dobrygin gives a marvellous performance as his Pavel struggles unsuccessfully to cope with his own ineptness and growing fear of Sergei’s intimidating inflexibility. In this respect the film might well be considered a coming-of-age story.

Whilst the first two-thirds of How I Ended This Summer are given over to the banality of the men’s existence, both in terms of their occupation and the barren setting which they inhabit, in the final third act it shifts gear as Sergei and Pavel finally give vent to their burgeoning hostility once Pavel finally breaks his bad news to Sergei who seemingly in a literal sense, sets about shooting the messenger. I am not sure that there is a great gain in all this as it feels rather contrived and adds noticeably to the running time. Perhaps, as it all feels quite pointed (notably the reference to radiation), there are some cultural specifics involved Chernobyl, which are going to be lost on non-Russian viewers. Perhaps the film is a kind of allegory of the relationship between the Old and New Russias. For an English language audience this remains, at best, a footnote.  This aside, for anyone who likes elemental minimalism in their cinema, How I Ended This Summer will be rewarding viewing.

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