{"id":291124,"date":"2025-11-14T12:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291124\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T12:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:44:20","slug":"victor-kossakovsky-on-joaquin-phoenix-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291124\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Kossakovsky on Joaquin Phoenix, Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA woman walks barefoot over jagged rocks by the sea in a location we can\u2019t quite place immediately. Wearing a white dress, her face is hidden beneath the brim of a floppy hat. She walks and walks, sometimes carrying a large jute bag over her shoulder. In his new feature, the black-and-white Trillion, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky<\/a> tells a minimalist story, but he is hoping for maximum impact. <\/p>\n

\n\tDescribed as \u201ca cinematic and wordless interpretation of the Myth of Sisyphus\u201d in collaboration with an artist using the name K49814, Trillion world premieres Sunday in the Envision Competition of this year\u2019s\u00a0International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam<\/a>\u00a0(IDFA<\/a>). Its executive producers include none other than Joaquin Phoenix<\/a>, along with Susan Rockefeller, Frank Lehmann, Fridrik Mar and Kaja Bjelke.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat unfolds in Trillion over 80 wordless minutes feels like a mystery and an experience, enticing viewers to try and piece together what is happening and why, based on visual clues, including the images and the play of light, and audio clues, both natural and atmospheric.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven Kossakovsky\u2019s past work, though, you know that he will want to make us aware of something profound and make us think about it. An official description of Trillion confirms as much, noting that the movie is \u201cthe second installment of his \u2019empathy trilogy.’\u201d And it explains the filmmaker\u2019s hope for the impact of Trillion this way: \u201cProvoking deeply relevant questions about the meaning and purpose of life in a time when all sentient beings face existential threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKossakovsky has made a splash with such recent works as Gunda (2020), about a pig<\/a> and her piglets that was the first film in his \u201cempathy trilogy,\u201d which Phoenix also executive produced. And in Architekton (2024)<\/a>, the director explored creation and destruction. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTrillion is also a call to action: a journey of discovery that prompts reflection on the possibilities of realizing a different future,\u201d the IDFA website says mysteriously. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs with Gunda, Phoenix is listed as an executive producer on Trillion. And when the closing credits roll, Danny Glover and Maya Rudolph are among the other big Hollywood names mentioned in a \u201cthank you\u201d section. \u201cThey were involved in the production in one way or another,\u201d Kossakovsky tells THR. Anonymous Content is handling world sales for the film from Anita Rehoff Larsen and Tone Grottjord-Glenne for Sant & Usant, and Joslyn Barnes<\/a> for Louverture Films.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what exactly is this woman in Trillion doing? And why? That only becomes clear very, very gradually. \u201cOnly at the last second, you understand,\u201d says the Russian director. \u201cIn the last frame, you know why it\u2019s called Trillion and what it is about.\u201d (THR will for now not spoil further details.)<\/p>\n

\n\tHe feels doc festival IDFA is a great fit for his kind of doc work. \u201cWhen you go to a fiction festival like Berlin or Venice, you are secondary,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople waiting on the red carpet for George Clooney.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKossakovsky says that \u201cevery film I make, I\u2019m trying to make differently in form.\u201d But he has earned a reputation for using narrative images more than dialogue. \u201cI\u2019m not using many words in my movies,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cI\u2019m trying to use cinema language. I\u2019m trying to use pictures. A picture alone talks most of the time. Our eyes are unbelievable computers. We are able to look at someone and read that other person. This is why I don\u2019t understand why cinema, specifically documentary cinema, doesn\u2019t use this factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cWe understand the world not through voiceovers and talking heads. It\u2019s not through words. We understand the world around us through looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatching Trillion, audiences will see images and movement, but \u201cin a way, nothing much is happening,\u201d Kossakovsky offers. \u201cThe idea is to watch to the last frame. My duty was [to make sure] that you sit and watch until the end.\u201d And he quips: \u201cThat\u2019s why I trick people. I use this dramatic music\u201d in parts of the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director shares that his distinct approach to documentary filmmaking means he also tends to be notably affected by his projects. \u201cSome people make documentaries in order to teach someone something,\u201d Kossakovsky explains. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why they use a voiceover to tell you something. I\u2019m making films in order to become a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe means that literally. \u201cI\u2019m doing a film, and after that film, I cannot live in the same way I lived before,\u201d the director shares. <\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about his empathy trilogy, Kossakovsky tells THR: \u201cI decided to to make three films about something we don\u2019t pay attention to.\u201d In Gunda, he tackled that in this way: \u201cWe don\u2019t pay attention to pigs. We just eat them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did Phoenix get involved in that film? \u201cHe watched Gunda, and he immediately called me and said, \u2018Finally, someone made a film about pigs, not about us humans,’\u201d Kossakovsky recalls. \u201cHe watched it and said, \u2018I want to support such movies.’\u201d Now, the actor is back on board for Trillions.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the filmmaker is already thinking about the third film in the trilogy. \u201cI cannot say anything about it, because it\u2019s still secret, but I will start soon,\u201d Kossakovsky shares. \u201cAnd I hope Joaquin Phoenix will be part of it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018Trillion\u2019 world premiere details: Sunday, November 16 at 6:15 pm at Tuschinski 1 in Amsterdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman walks barefoot over jagged rocks by the sea in a location we can\u2019t quite place immediately.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,149673,152670,2091,13725,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-291124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-idfa","10":"tag-idfa-2025","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-joaquin-phoenix","13":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}