01
THE FILM
Synopsis
ROCK ON BONES
V. OFF : - “... It’s only in 1986 that Rock music was authorized in Russia... ”
February, Burgundy.
We are locked away in an isolated house, in the middle of the forest.
Two years earlier.
I witness a concert by this Russian punk rock band, The Oz.
Their energy and their music knocked me off my feet. I decided to follow them with my camera to help them break through the European music scene.
We thus start a project: make a road biopic and record their new album in Saint Petersburg.
I want to understand where they truly come from.
Through following them closely, I discover the delirious underground scene of Saint Petersburg.
The more I plunge into their history, the more they give me access to some parts of the hidden iceberg, strong emotional shocks.
An adventure that will deliver us a merry-go-round of enchantments, disillusions, and discoveries followed by a series of obstacles that will lead us to believe that a spell is trying to occlude the project.
February, Burgundy.
I’m a hostage in my own house.
These two years of total immersion, tenacity and perseverance have worn us, all, to the bone.
02
FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS
An encounter between a French director and the Russian punk band The Oz launched a more than two-year journey between Paris and St. Petersburg.
Captivated by the band’s last music album ''Che-Lennon', Caroline Troubetzkoy decides to help The Oz break through in the West. In return, she gets an exclusive opportunity to learn about the history of Russian rock’n’roll and its politically charged contexts, and gains access to rare footage for a highly personal film that exceeds the definition of documentary and tends towards performance.
DETAIL:
“Western vinyls arrived in the country as contraband, but nobody could afford the price. So some clever guys had the bright idea of inventing an illegal machine that could copy these vinyls on pieces of medical X-rays.”
- Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival
A young French filmmaker decides that the charismatic Russian punk band Oz deserves a career in the West.
Besides two years of fun and frustration, this autobiographical rockumentary also offers surprising insights into alternative music from the former Soviet Union. Raw, energetic and pretty self-destructive
French filmmaker Caroline Troubetzkoy became fascinated by the Russian punk/rock band 'Oz Broz' after hearing their version of John Lennon’s God. The four rough-and-ready Russians turned out not to be easy objects of affection, however. As eternal contrarians, the punks were good at snarling and behaving in a reckless and incendiary manner.
Troubetzkoy nevertheless decided to film the group for a period of two years. What starts out as a road movie ends up a psychological, anthropological essay by the filmmaker. The trips in the company of her unpredictable subjects regularly get out of hand, encompassing every emotion on the scale.
The contrast between the beautifully shot background images and the everyday goings-on is as manic as the band itself. This material is supplemented by historical images giving context and explanation. Rock on Bones gives a contemporary face to the Russian alternative music scene - a particularly humorous, uneasy portrait of a band that eschews both success and obscurity.
- IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam
