"NACHMITTAG": THE STORY OF A SCREEN VERSION OF "THE SEAGULL" BY A. CHEKHOV
This article seeks to adress the work of the modern German director Angela Shanelek in its relation to the pretext - “The Seagull” by A. Chekhov. The features of “Nachmittag” are considered in the terms of clarifying and rethinking of Chekhov’s key images and symbols and associated with the director’s principles and intention: the movie is able to express great meaning, while remaining extremely personal and even intimate. Shanelek creates a movie about the thirst for searching for your own place and life purpose and about the lack of inner power, which turns into an existential drama of personality. The Lake House is subject to a special chronotope and becomes the center, while some characters are subject to centrifugal, others - to the centripetal force. Art in the film is interpreted as sublimation, craving for escapism and thirst for recognition. Chekhov’s failed communication turns into a real drama for the mother and son, which becomes the central story of the film. The creative principles of the “Berlin School” such as dedramatization, unhurried rhythm, static frame, refusal of excessive expressiveness match the principles of the Russian playwright, and “The Seagull”, being put into the modern context, receives a new author’s interpretation.