Russian cinema under a pseudonym – Newspaper Kommersant No. 215 (7416) dated 11/21/2022

At the IDFA documentary film festival that ended in Amsterdam, the results were summed up and the winners were named. Most awarded films, notes Andrey Plakhov, are directly or indirectly related to the Russian socio-political situation.

One can even say that films from Russia or about Russia turned out to be the focus of attention at the largest documentary show. And this is quite unexpected against the background of the fact that sensitive topics are actually blocked in the country itself, and many independent filmmakers have gone abroad and are already working in local film structures. In addition, calls for a boycott of Russian films at international festivals have not dried up. Nevertheless, not only the participant, but also the winner of the Envision competition was the film “Manifesto”, next to the name of which the word “Russia” is in brackets. True, we can hardly talk about the official representation of the country. The film is preceded by a presentation frame: its author, wearing a mask, says that he could not present his work in Amsterdam for security reasons. So Angie Vincito, who officially appears in the festival documents as the director of Manifesto, is most likely a pseudonym.

The jury’s decision said: “This film is the product of the digital age and a generation of children finding an outlet for their intimate feelings, fears and desires on social media. The director impressed us with his ability to structure these individual voices into a powerful collective choir.” There is not a single specially filmed frame in the Manifesto; it is all built from videos posted online by teenagers between 2014 and 2022. A certain generalized picture grows out of them – at first it is “cool”, in the spirit of TikTok, but gradually becomes more and more shocking and grotesque, and in the finale – tragically hopeless.

The top stories of the “Manifesto” are evidence of assault and profanity of teachers filmed by teenagers. Or pedagogical revelations that a woman should sexually serve her husband as soon as he wishes. Finally, it comes to extreme videos: a school shooting in Kazan (2021) and the suicide of two barricaded armed teenagers in the Pskov region (2016). The depressing if not apocalyptic atmosphere of Angie Vincito’s collage is, paradoxically, somewhat balanced by teenage humor, and this adds a touch of restrained optimism.

And in the short competition, the Hungarian-Belgian-Portuguese film “Away” by Ruslan Fedotov, filmed in Budapest among Ukrainian refugees, became the IDFA favorite and winner. Sixteen-year-old Kharkiv residents Andrei and Alisa, still almost children themselves, help those who are ten years younger and who, together with their parents, endured the traumatic experience of rocket attacks and destroyed houses. The young couple is in constant contact with loved ones who have remained in Kharkov, they are hard going through separation from them and what is happening to their hometown. They arrange an anti-war performance on the streets of the Hungarian capital, which causes heated discussions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian passers-by. “A brave film about people forced out of their lands, where pain turns into tenderness, and art into resistance,” the jury commented on its decision.

In the main international competition, Russia was also involved: the Franco-Swiss “Paradise” by Alexander Abaturov, a modern myth about the terrible Yakut fires and the fearless fight against fire, received an award for camera work, brilliantly performed by the Frenchman Paul Guillaume. And the main prize of this competition, the most prestigious at IDFA, was given to the Danish-Polish-French “Apolonia”, an introspective portrait of the artist Apolonia Sokol. From the outside, the film, deeply immersed in the private and creative life of the main character, is far from politics, but this is a superficial impression.

In fact, the plot of this life is closely connected with the processes in society and culture of recent decades. Despite her obvious talent, personal charisma and devotion to art, Apolonia makes her way to the art scene with great difficulty and almost falls into the trap of compromised success set by cunning dealers. The artist’s fate becomes a twisted mirror reflection of her friend Oksana Shachko, an activist of the Ukrainian radical group Femen. A fate that ended in suicide. Reflections on the ideology of feminism and the subculture of childfree are reflected in another mirror: Lea Globe, who shot this film, becomes it. The word “removed” is not entirely appropriate here, because it implies a quick decisive action: took and removed. Meanwhile, this heroic directorial work lasted 13 years – and as a result, a unique portrait of the artist was obtained, inscribed in the dynamics of time. Lea herself managed to give birth to a child, almost die during childbirth, earn a disability – and at the same time she did not stop filming. The Grand Prize in Amsterdam is a well-deserved recognition of this outstanding professional work.