“Duck Hunt” - the third address of Grigory Kozlov to the dramatic art by Alexander Vampilov.
“Duck Hunt” is a blend of everyday drama, a poetic parable and high tragedy. This is a story about loneliness and lostness in life. The world is dislocated, the world is shattered, people have lost interest and taste for life. From time to time they try to somehow diversify being and do not get any return, no joy, not even a minute pleasure. People who have forgotten how to work, relax, make friends, love, hate, despise, make miserable attempts to regain the authenticity of sensations and experiences, fail over and over again and return to the starting point of meaninglessness of existence.
Rush of memories, ghosts of familiar people appear in Zilov's glazed space like trouble, knocking down a sequence of events, chasing a desperate, insane Zilov, returning him to the same places and people again and again, preventing him from escaping from a closed circle. The illusion of life, time, event movement in its essence is a carousel run in a circle, Zilov is a Soviet Hamlet, an indecisive hero, alone in a circle of supposedly close people, desperate and deprived of hope. Duck hunting for him is an unattainable goal, seeming as an outlet, a lumen in the gloom of everyday life, and at the same time having no meaning. Zilov doesn’t want to hunt, not ducks, not even a shot — he dreams of a predawn fog on the river. Reed, boat, wave, silent, loneliness, peace. Desperate and hopeless attempt to escape from life. Imitation of death and new birth, the path to oblivion.
And outside the windows there is incessant rain, which takes away the last hope - the hunt will not take place. The circle will not open. Revival is not given.