Project Detail

Hero City

Synopsis

In an unnamed city above the Arctic Circle, in the far north of Russia a narrator, ostensibly the filmmaker, retraces her journey to the city, talking to the images. She tells of her encounters and her recollections of what happened after her visit, between the time of filming and the time of her telling. However, she is aware that the images like her own memories of moving through the city cannot be trusted to provide any certainty about what was happening, what she saw, what she felt and what it meant. Like memories, they shuffle around in one’s mind, play tricks, taking on a life of their own.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Details

Year
2016
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
14 mins
Director
Ruth Maclennan
Producer
Ruth Maclennan
Director of Photography
Ruth Maclennan
Sound
Ruth Maclennan
Principal cast
Voice: Juliet Cadzow

Production Status

Production Company

Russia, UK coproduction

Sales Company

LUX

Waterlow Park Centre
Dartmouth Park Hill
London
N19 5JF

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Cloudberries Cloudberries

Director: Ruth Maclennan

Year: 2019

CLOUDBERRIES was filmed in Arctic Russia in a village near an offshore gas field. The narrator is 'just visiting’, with villagers including the last Sámi. Sounds of the sea, wildlife, a music festival, a choir, and an abandoned school house accompany the filmmaker until she finally sets out to sea. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

A dog in a crudely made fox costume is sat being fed by a yellow marigold glove on the end of a wooden pole. A Skulk in London

Director: Polina Chizhova, James Stephen Wright

Year: 2018

The work “A Skulk in London” explores the human projections onto animal life from a satirical perspective. Its aim is research the life of urban foxes amid the Anthropocene environment of central London and the mythologies surrounding them to highlight the human tendency of understanding and perpetually interpreting the natural world limited by the point of view of “man”. The main character is a city man who becomes fascinated with finding nature in the city and is following urban foxes to fulfil his dream of wilderness. The character lives in a world of fantasy and does not consider the perspective and agency of urban wildlife. His obsession is so blinding and absorbing that he doesn’t realise that the fox he finds is, in fact, a dog in a costume.

I Only Do Real Things I Only Do Real Things

Director: James Stephen Wright, George Finlay Ramsay

Year: 2020

Following the threefold journey of a rock through distinct layers of reality. June’s the best month, June’s the brightest month isn’t it? June’s the best month, June’s the brightest month isn’t it? June’s the best month, June’s the brightest month isn’t it? With narration from the rock in its mother tongue (usefully subtitled), it plays in the parallel mirror-image universe as hypothesised by a prophetic laminitic Shetland Pony based in Perthshire. Like a stoney Virgil, the rock guides us through its attempts to do only the realest of things.