Architecton
A film starring rocks should not be this thrilling. But in the meditative hands of master documentarian Victor Kossakovsky (2018’s Aquarela, 2020’s Oscar-shortlisted Gunda), Architecton, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale, is an epic and hypnotic stone-centered quest to answer the existential question, “How do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?” And the original precursor to today’s concrete — the most-used substance in the world after water — seems to provide a surprisingly sensible answer.
With Italian architect Michele De Lucchi as our bedrock, we’re swept into a visually striking, globetrotting excursion that takes us from the bombed-out buildings of Ukraine, to the earthquake-shattered cities of Turkey, and all the way back to Lebanon’s temple ruins in Baalbek, which have been around since AD 60, manmade and natural disasters be damned. Which ultimately returns us to the renowned architect, whose works have been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and perhaps his greatest legacy-defining design of all: a landscape project based around a circle that no human will ever be allowed to enter. A green reminder that we are not the center of a universe that puts people and pebbles on equal footing. Whether we’ll remain on firm ground is up to us.
Just prior to the film’s August 1st theatrical premiere, Filmmaker reached out to the Russian director, whose political views and refusal to work within a corrupt film industry caused him to leave his homeland over a decade ago. (And whose citizenship nevertheless prevented him from actually shooting in Ukraine.)
Filmmaker: I was a bit surprised to learn that Architecton is actually the final part of a trilogy, which includes 2011’s Vivan las Antipodas! and 2018’s Aquarela. So why a trilogy?
Kossakovsky: First we made Antipodas. For various reasons we called it Vivan las Antipodas!, but inside the house it was Antipodas.
Then in August 2013 I went to Mexico City to film the inauguration of a modern building — my first “research shoot” for Architecton. During the afternoon of the first day of filming we learned there was a huge and dangerous flood in Veracruz, so we went there and filmed that. A few scenes of the flood made it into the final cut of Aquarela. Essentially, in one day we started to shoot two films. Then I realized that both temp titles started with the letter A. So when A24 joined the Architecton production I began calling the three films my “A” trilogy.
Filmmaker: The pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine drastically transformed your idea for the film, which makes me curious to hear what the initial concept was. And besides shooting footage of the many destroyed buildings in Ukraine, how did the production change?
Kossakovsky: My original idea was to make a comedy: How does an architect’s artistic idea become a concrete rectangle?
Once the pandemic and the war started it was clear that the film could not be funny anymore. For me as a Russian filmmaker there were only two ways to go — either stop production on Architecton (and any other films), or go deeper into the roots of human nature to destroy. And to build in order to destroy again. As it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: a time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
Filmmaker: Though you spoke with quite a number of renowned architects during preproduction only Michele De Lucchi appears in the doc. Did you always plan to spotlight a single architect?
Kossakovsky: I asked many of the most famous architects of our time what they would build if they had a chance to develop whatever they wished, without any budget limits, in the center of a modern city. Something that would be important for us now and in a few hundred years ahead.
Unfortunately, the answers I got were quite ordinary. It showed that even the most talented architects do not see the future. Only one had an original idea — keep the center of the city empty for nature itself. Then we will remember that we are not the most important creatures in this world, but just a part of the world.
Filmmaker: As a Russian citizen how has the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and Putin’s lethal rise that forced you into self-exile for that matter – changed you as a filmmaker?
Kossakovsky: This is a very difficult question. Very difficult. It’s something I will be answering with my next film, It Is Not an Accident.
Filmmaker: Though you’ve long been known for your grand visuals and immersive sound design, I also wondered if you consider yourself an activist filmmaker. After all, Architecton is an anti-concrete film much like 2020’s Gunda seems a call for vegetarianism. Are you on a cinematic mission to force humanity to realize it’s a part of — as opposed to apart from — nature?
Kossakovsky: For me it is very clear that it’s time for us to take our next step. Humanism was important to us for many years, but we put ourselves in the center of the universe without thinking of the other creatures and species around us. It’s simply time to move on. We are ready to make that next step — the empathy step! Without empathy we just won’t survive on this planet.
