Aleksey GERMAN jr. Алексей ГЕРМАН мл. Alekseï GUERMAN jr.   Russian Federation / Poland / Serbia, 2018, 126 mn  fiction

Dovlatov ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Довлатов    Dovlatov  Dovlatov

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Plot 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-Jewish 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. https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php?film_id=201816008#tab=filmStills

 

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Selected in the following festivals :

- Russian film festival in Ajaccio, Ajaccio (France), 2019

- Festival de films russes Kinorama au cinéma Royal de Biarritz, Biarritz (France), 2019

- Festival du film russe. A l'heure de Moscou, Verdun sur Garonne (France), 2019

- Scènes et Ciné - Programme Panorama - Cinématographies de Russie et d'Europe Centrale, Fos sur Mer (France), 2019

- Russian Film Festival, Orléans (France), 2019

- Russian Film Festival in Niort, Niort (France), 2019

- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2019

- Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2019

- Russian film symposium. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA), 2019

- Yerevan International Film Festival "Golden Apricot", Yerevan (Armenia), 2018

- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2018

- Soirées du cinéma russe de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (France), 2018

- Les rencontres des cinémas d'Europe, Aubenas (France), 2018

- Russian Film Week in Paris : Regards de Russie, Paris (France), 2018

- Release in France of the film, Different cities (France), 2018-09-12

- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2018

- Haifa International Film Festival, Haifa (Israel), 2018

- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2018

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2018

- Festival ''Cinema and literature'', Gatchina (Russia), 2018

- International debut film festival, Khanty Mansiysk (Russia), 2018

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2018

- Belgrade International Film Festival, Belgrade (Serbia), 2018

- GIFF. Geneva International Film Festival, Geneva (Switzerland), 2018

- Istanbul International Film Festival, Istanbul (Turkey), 2018

- The Times BFI London Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2018

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