My mother told me this story. In 1974 she and my father witnessed the filming of “Dersu Uzala” in the vicinity of our village in Far Eastern Russia. They saw the film’s director Akira Kurosawa, the film crew, and a cage with a live tiger from the window of their car as they passed by. At the time I was a newborn sleeping in my mother’s arms.
My father died a year and a half later. I never got to know him. My memories of him are made of stories told to me by other people. I have been imagining this particular story being played in a slow motion as if it was a scene from the Kurosawa’s movie. I could see my father driving, my mother holding me in her arms, and our car passing by the film location. I even imagined Kurosawa wearing his dark signature glasses throwing a quick glance our way.
Filming of “Dersu Uzala” has become the single most important event in the collective history of our village. Some people still have photos of Kurosawa directing the film for which he received an Oscar. I developed a strong personal attachment to that movie which for me speaks of home and in some ways links me to my father.
In 2008 I returned to Russia to the place where Kurosawa filmed his movie. I photographed the location wondering how it looked back in 1974 when due to some extraordinary circumstances the main actors of my personal history found themselves there.
