Directed by Russian documentary auteur, Victor Kossakovsky, Ti s h e! is an original and quite disconcerting project. Over the period of a year (day or night, rain or shine, winter or summer), Kossakovsky shot out the window of his St. Petersburg apartment, wh i ch was situated on a street undergoing repairs in preparation for the city’s 300th anniversary. He captures with patience and humour, the daily comings and goings of the St. Petersburg people. As the seasons change, lovers drunkenly embrace; men walk dogs and people quarrel, while the street is continually ripped up in a vain attempt to fix the neighbourhood’s water system.
Kossakovsky credits inspiration for the film to photographer Nicephore Niepce’s View from the Window at Le Gras (1822) and E.T. A. Hoffmann’s short story, My Cousin’s Corner Window (1822). Drawing on all the aspects of the seventh art, he makes this epiphany of daily life take on an unexpected and ch e e rful street-comedy air. Nominated for Best European Documentary 2003.