SYNOPSIS
Leningrad, November 1971. The city is shrouded in fog. Another anniversary of the revolution is being celebrated, but the country is not making any progress – politically, economically or culturally. Sergei has first-hand experience of this stasis. The young writer’s manuscripts are regularly rejected by the official media; his view on things and people is not desired. Others are experiencing similar problems, one of them is his friend Joseph Brodsky whom the state forces into exile. Sergei is however determined to stay and lead a normal life with his wife Lena and daughter Katya. He wants to write about discovering reality: about shipyard workers, or the construction of the metro where one day the bodies of thirty children killed during the Second World War are uncovered.
Alexey German Jr’s film makes use of grand tableaux and extended tracking shots to portray the world of Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov (1941–1990), whose brilliantly ironic texts were forbidden from being printed in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev. Out of a tragicomic rondeau of rebellion and assimilation, pain and fatigue, ensues a portrait of an era of stagnation and its destructive effects.
CAST & CREW
Alexey German Jr
Director
Producer(s)
Andrey Savelyev, Artem Vasilyev, Konstantin Ernst
Script
Aleksey German Jr., Julia Tupikina
Director of Photography
Łukasz Żal
Production designer
Elena Okopnaya
Sound
Ivan Gusakov
Edit
Sergei Ivanov, Darya Gladysheva
Cast
Milan Marić, Danila Kozlovsky, Helena Sujecka, Artur Beschastny, Elena Lyadova, Anton Shagin, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Piotr Gasowski, Eva Gerr, Hanna Sleszynska, Tamar Hovannisian.
Production company(ies)
SAGa Film Company Metrafilms Channel One Russia
Alexey German Jr
He studied at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). His feature film debut The Last Train won the Luigi De Laurentiis Special Mention Award at the 2003 Venice IFF. His third film Paper Soldier also screened at Venice in 2008 where it won awards including the Silver Lion for Best Direction. Under Electric Clouds participated in the 2015 Berlinale Competition and won a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. He studied at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). His feature film debut The Last Train won the Luigi de Laurentiis Special Mention Award at the 2003 Venice IFF. His third film Paper Soldier also screened at Venice in 2008 where it won awards including the Silver Lion for Best Direction. Under Electric Clouds participated in the 2015 Berlinale Competition and won a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.
Filmography
Banner (1998, short), Big Autumn Field (1999), Fools (2001, short), The Last Train (2003), Garpastum (2005), Paper Soldier (2008), From Tokyo (2011, short), Under Electric Clouds (2015), Dovlatov (2018).
