The Village Detective: a song cycle
(2021, 81min, 4K, 5.1 audio)

a film by Bill Morrison
music by David Lang
distributed by Kino Lorber

Final mix (stereo), color corrected 10/20/20

In July 2016, four reels of "Derevensky Detektiv” (1969), a Soviet film starring the Russian actor Mikhail Zharov (1899-1981), were found in a fisherman's net trawling the bottom, and middle, of the Atlantic Ocean - twenty miles off the Icelandic coast, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The recovered footage is interwoven with interviews and clips from Zharov's lengthy filmography to reflect how life, history, and art can intersect and endure on celluloid.

Directed, produced, and edited by Bill Morrison
Produced by Maria Vinogradova
Music composed by David Lang
Music performed by Frode Andersen, accordion, Shara Nova, vocals

Support provided by the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Residency Award, The Ohio State University.