Watch Roads to Koktebel

Roads to Koktebel, a 2003 Russian film directed by Boris Khlebnikov and Aleksei Popogrebsky, is a minimalist road movie about a father and son's physical and psychological journey to a mythical seaside paradise. The film stars Gleb Puskepalis as the Father, Igor Chernevich as the Son, and Evgeniy Sytyy as the Hitchhiker. The movie begins with the death of the wife/mother, in the far north of Russia, and the father and son leave home to go to Koktebel, a coastal town in southern Ukraine where the boy's father spent his childhood. They have to make the journey by foot since the father's car breaks down, which makes the task even more challenging. The story relates the experiences, adventures, and obstacles that they face on the way as they travel across vast expanses of fields, mountains, and deserts.

The father and son are two very different people. The father is taciturn, practical, and determined to reach Koktebel by any means necessary. The son, on the other hand, is a quiet and sensitive dreamer who finds solace in his imagination. The father is trying to protect his son from the harsh realities of the world, while the son is trying to find a way to connect with his father.

The landscape the pair finds themselves in has been used as a mirror for the characters' internal struggles. The various locations the Father and Son pass through are alluded to in the film's title 'Roads' which implies a series of different paths, and this is pertinent when considering the rocky road that they travel. The locations are as follows – fields of green barley swaying in the wind, an abandoned hotel, the fence he climbs, the desert sand dunes they cross, the turtle they spot, the circus tent where they end up, the travelers they meet, and the old man's makeshift sanctuary.

The duo's journey becomes a metaphorical quest as they confront challenges that mirror internal conflicts. The path itself is never clear, it starts and stops, with the father and son often lost and unsure of what direction to take next. Throughout their journey, they encounter several odd characters and situations, both dangerous and comical, that make it more complicated than they originally thought. They hitch rides with unreliable strangers, run from a pack of wild dogs, and get drunk with a group of circus performers.

The boy's fascination with his father is symbolic of the child's need for a strong parental figure in a world of insecurity; his father is away on business often, and the boy idealizes him as a all-consuming figure. They never discuss the mother's death, but her absence hangs over the characters like a shadow, and they are forced to deal with their grief in different ways.

The film's cinematography is one of its most significant strengths, with wide-angle shots that emphasize the vastness of the natural world and the smallness of the characters in it. Most of the conversations are held on the move, outside, and the shots are candid, suggesting that the characters exist in an open and vast world, with no one watching nearby.

Roads to Koktebel are characterized as a minimalist, beautifully shot, contemplative piece of cinema that asks its audience to be on a journey of its own. It is a movie that favors observation and reflection over dialogue, offering incredible scenery and an immersive journey that allows for personal interpretation.