An ode to cinema and to loving it against all odds. The film follows the journey of a retired projectionist, and a young high school student, as they come together to keep the spirit of cinema alive in their remote village in Azerbaijan. It’s a story driven by an old man’s passion for filmmaking and a teenager’s enthusiasm in reviving it the 21st century.
Arcadia is a seductive piece of work. Approach it as you might a rich and strange piece of music. A rhapsody montage of archive clips, flickering evocations of bucolic calm, bizarre eccentricity and what looks like real-life folk horror paganism, coming at you with Pathe newsreel voices. A fever dream of the British countryside.