The First Death

In the winter of 2011, after a controversial election, Vladimir Putin was reinstalled as president of Russia. In response, hundreds of thousands of citizens rose up all over the country to challenge the legitimacy of Putin’s rule. Among them were a group of young, radical-feminist punk rockers, better known as Pussy Riot. Wearing colored balaclavas, tights, and summer dresses, they entered Moscow’s most venerated cathedral and dared to sing “Mother Mary, Banish Putin!” Now they have become victims of a “show” trial.

Amid the war in Ukraine, Tanya and Zenit’s fragile love story unfolds, stretched between moments of closeness and conflict. Meanwhile, a group of children play war, building block posts, and imagining futures defined by violence.

Never before in Russian history has the Russian domestic intelligence services been more powerful than today. The FSB is a murky organisation that can ruin people’s lives who are deemed enemies of the Russian state and even commit murder on behalf of the Kremlin. Four people in exile open up about their experiences with the FSB.

The documentary project The Term was conceived in May 2012. When the directing trio commenced mapping the Russian sociopolitical landscape, Vladimir Putin had just settled into the Kremlin for his third term. The original experimental format of “documentary bulletins,” which were published daily online, allowed for wide-ranging content; in the feature film version, however, the filmmakers focused solely on the members of various opposition groups. Nevertheless, the work’s neutral position remains and viewers have to interpret the objectively presented situations for themselves. The main characteristics of this strongly authentic movie include close contact with the protagonists, precise editing, and an effectively controlled release of information.

Pussy Riot: The Movement embarks on the odyssey of the girls who rocked a country and continue to fight for human rights throughout the world. Documentary follows Masha Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich through their harsh two year sentences for playing music to their freedom. What started as a punk rock collective has catapulted to a world movement for human rights.

Russian activists Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevich decide to separate from the well-known activist group Voina and create their own group named Pussy Riot that would express their ideas of female independence, combining activism, feminism, and punk rock music. Their defeat in court becomes their moral victory, as Pussy Riot are cheered on by thousands of their new-found fans.

Russian Federation, May 6, 2012. On the eve of the ceremony of inauguration of Vladimir Putin, elected for a third term, the police brutally repressed a march of protest over the lack of freedom existing in the nation. Some people believed that this demonstration would be the beginning of a peaceful revolution, but it was the day when silence and fear won the game. Realize what happens when a person has too much power in his hands.

On July 30, 2018, documentary filmmaker Alexander Rastorguev was killed in the Central African Republic. He left a unique mark on Russian cinema, but managed to do much less than he could. "Rastorguev" - a portrait of one of the brightest and most free filmmakers of our time; direct speech and fragments of films, forming a single statement about the meaning of art, homeland and pain.

A look at the story through the prism of the present. Artists in front of the audience reincarnate in the heroes of the film (the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky; the women he loved and left him; the friends who admired him and backed away from him; the ruthless “Knights of the Revolution” who proclaimed him his banner) and lead the viewer “to” Mayakovsky, forcing him to live his love, creative, and human drama as his own.