The film-essay is narrated and told on behalf of the author of the film. In an associative montage, style frames change quickly and often chaotically, accompanying her thought process.
"Sleep /Timekeeper" ( the very first working title) - is about a filmmaker’s insomnia and incapability of falling asleep, who finds herself awake dreaming of her film on Velimir Khlebnikov and searching for sleep. In 2022 it will be 100 years since the death of the futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov. He calculated the patterns of the past and determined the events of the future, warning his contemporaries of the coming social catastrophes, but he was not taken seriously. He predicted World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Radio, the fall of the Soviet Union and the new internet world. The next big event according to his calculations, is in 2025... “Timekeeper“ is not a classic documentary film based solely on biography, but an experimental and very personal onyrical dream-like drama with elements of video art.
"I did not sleep for what feels like eternity. One of the side effects of insomnia is: the past merges with the present, and the future seems empty. I go to bed in one place and in the morning I find myself on the other end of the world, in different places: Italia, Russia, Sahara, Kalmykia. It was here for the first time I learned the name of Velimir Khlebnikov. Suddenly it occurred to me that I want to make a film about Khlebnikov. I can clearly see all the details of the film. A house in the Sahara. I am spending a long time alone, so I decided to write letters to Velimir Khlebnikov, describing the film scenes I have in mind. I suffer from insomnia and instead of sleeping I watch a film about him. I am infected by Velimir Khlebnikovs’ hunger for space and begin travelling the world.
My sleep and dreams came back at the moment when I saw a vision of Velimir Khlebnikovs’ death, as he swam the river leath and was reborn."