Dmitry Danilov: “Our cultural layer is very thin”

Dmitry Danilov, one of the main modern playwrights, is best known for his absurdist play The Man from Podolsk, about a very strange interrogation at a police station. The text was staged in dozens of theaters across the country and abroad, was awarded at the Golden Mask (2018), and not so long ago turned into a film of the same name, which won a prize at Kinotavr (2020). In addition to plays, Danilov writes poetry and novels, the last of which is the dystopia Sasha, hello! – received the Yasnaya Polyana award last year.

This winter, Dmitry Danilov chaired the panel of experts for another important literary award, the Big Book (given since 2005). Under his leadership, experts formed in June the traditional shortlist of finalists, from which by December another structure – a jury called the Literary Academy – will select the top three winners. But the “short list” of the “Big Book” is in itself the best recommendation for reading, as well as an indicative cut of the trends of modern Russian prose.