The Search (2014 film)

The Search is a 2014 French drama film written, directed, produced and coedited by Michel Hazanavicius and coproduced by Thomas Langmann. The film is a reiteration of the Oscarwinning postHolocaust drama also called The Search, directed by Fred Zinnemann, in which a compassionate westerner helps a lost child find what is left of his family amidst the chaotic flood of postwar civilian refugees. In the 1948 film the backdrop is postwar Berlin The Search 2014 takes place in the front lines of the Russian invasion of Chechnya during the first year of the Second Chechen War 19992009. In both cases international aid workers help the families reunite. The Search was selected to compete for the Palme dOr in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Much of the filming took place alongside the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia depicting places like a village near Grozny, NGO offices in the city of Nazran in nearby Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia that borders Chechnya, the city of Perm, Russia. Film critic Justin Chang praised the work of set designer, Emile Ghigo, who used buildings, places and geographical features in the mountainous, battlescarred landscape of Georgia that were similar to those in Chechnya including buildings destroyed by bombs, army barracks and refugee camps. McCarthy also cited Ghigos contribution with his wellchosen locations, the crowded city scenes, detention centers and army barracks reek with the feel, sounds and discomfort of humanity pressed into unnaturally tight quarters.Critics praised the work of Guillaume Schiffman, the French cinematographer, who also worked with director Michel Hazanavicius on films such as The Artist. McCarthy described how they used muted but still sharply defined colors, as well as with what appear to be mostly handheld cameras, to achieve a somber yet vitally immediate look. ........

Source: Wikipedia