OIL ROCKS - City above the Sea
La Cité du Pétrole / 52' - HD/SD
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DOCUMENTARIES
THE OIL ROCKS - Behind this enigmatic name lies the first and largest offshore oil town ever built. A vast, sprawling web of oil platforms in the middle of the Caspian Sea, commissioned by Stalin in 1949.
Imagine: 2,000 oil rigs, 300 kilometres of bridges, rusty old Soviet trucks rolling back and forth, nine-storey building blocks, thousands of oil workers, a cultural palace, a lemonade factory, a green park...
Sixty years on, the Oil Rocks still stand. But two-thirds of the infrastructure has been regained by the sea. A kind of Oil Atlantis, only real.
Combining black-and-white archives from the Soviet era and contemporary footage, the film tells the story of this timeless place and of some of its amazing inhabitants.
It is the first time a Western film crew is allowed to make a documentary on the site since its creation.
For a film copy, please e-mail us
Film poster and selection of images (high resolution files upon request)
Film presentation (French/German/English) at the Vision du Réel Film Festival
Film review published in SCIENCE
Press kit in French: Dossier de presse
In-depth report on the Oil Rocks history published in German magazine Bauwelt
Reviews during the International Premiere in Tokyo: Movie Blog and Tokyo Art
Film review at the Thessaloniki Film Festival (in French)
Original title: La Cité du Pétrole
Director: Marc Wolfensberger
Camera: Jon Björgvinsson
Sound: Blaise Gabioud
Editing: Patrick Léger, Peter Entell, Ana Acosta
Producer: Isabelle Gattiker
Production companies: Swiss TV TSR, Intermezzo Films, Thin Line Productions
Co-producers: YLE (Finland), MDR (Germany)
Length & format: 52 min, DigiBeta / HD
Languages: Azerbaijani, Russian w/ English, French, German subtitles
International sales: Autlook Filmsales / www.autlookfilms.com / peter@autlookfilms.com
TV Broadcasts:
MDR - Feb. 3, 2011 / Jan. 1, 2011 / Dec. 29, 2010 / Dec. 28, 2010 / Oct. 8, 2009
TSR 2 - Dec. 13, 2010
YLE - Nov. 30, 2009 / Nov. 24, 2009
Latest sales confirmed:
Al-Jazeera (Qatar)
UR (Sweden)
RSI (Switzerland)
IRIB (Iran)
Against Gravity (Poland)
TV SLO (Slovenia)
Festivals:
ArchiFacts Film Festival Antwerpen (Nov. 2012)
Pyongyang International Film Festival (Sept. 20-27, 2012)
Budapest Architecture Film Days (March 29-April 1, 2012)
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (Oct. 6-9, 2011)
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, Washington (March 15-27, 2011) - wins Polly Krakora Award for artistry in film
New waves, new ways, Prag, Czech Republic (Nov. 4-10, 2010)
Doclisboa, Portugual (Oct. 14-24, 2010)
Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland (Sept. 23-Oct. 3, 2010)
Documentarist 2010, Istanbul (June 22-27, 2010)
Rodos Ecofilms, Greece (June 22-27, 2010)
International Madrid Documentary Film Festival, Spain (May 7-16, 2010)
Planet Doc Review, Warsaw (May 7-16, 2010)
Trento Film Festival, Italy (April 29-May 9, 2010)
Anasy Documentary Awards, United Arab Emirates (April 22-May 9, 2010)
Al-Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, Doha (April 19-22, 2010)
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Greece (March 12-21, 2010)
Cinequest Film Festival, San José, CA/U.S.A. (February 27-March 6, 2010)
Tokyo International Film Festival, Japan (October 17-25, 2009)
Visions du Réel Nyon, Switzerland (April 15-21, 2009)
Synopsis
“Winner of the Polly Krakora award for artistry in film, Washington Environment Film Festival, March 2011”