The tradition of Tarkovsky burns bright in Jessica Oreck’s One Man Dies a Million Times, a feature which premiered at SXSW back in 2019 and was planning a theatrical roll-out right around the time the pandemic hit. With the filmmaker wanting to preserve the theatrical experience, it’ll arrive on July 29 at IFC Center and there’s no plans for the film to ever hit online/streaming services.
Part documentary, part legend, One Man Dies a Million Times draws inspiration of the true story of a seed bank and the botanists who worked there throughout the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944). Described as a “a true story, set in the future,” the film is about seeds and genetic diversity, about growth and decay, about love and war, about hunger of all kinds. About what it means to be human, even when all your humanity is stripped away.”
Shot by the great Sean Price Williams (Good Time, Listen Up Philip), the story follows Alyssa (Alyssa Lozovskaya) and Maksim (Maksim Blinov), who both work at the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in the center of the city. The Institute houses the world’s first seed bank—an irreplaceable trove of living genetic diversity which holds the potential to transform modern agriculture. The two young botanists fall in love as the world wages war around them. A record-breaking, desperate winter sets in and the city slowly, painfully, begins to starve to death. Savagery transplants civility. Maksim and Alyssa defend the seed bank and its priceless collection of edible specimens from the starving masses of the city, the enemy, hordes of rats, and each other.
See the trailer below, and tune into The Criterion Channel next month for a retrospective of Jessica Oreck’s prior documentary features.
One Man Dies a Million Times opens on July 29 at IFC Center.