(2025, Ukraine, USA, 117')
The film, marking the return to documentary filmmaking for Ukrainian director Alexander Rodnyansky – sentenced in absentia to eight years for his statements against the invasion of Ukraine – blends family footage, World War II archives, documentaries, and scientific films by his mentor Felix Sobolev, exploring key events in Ukrainian history and presenting itself as a personal counter-history of the Soviet Union.
Alexander Rodnyansky (Kyiv, 1971) is a Ukrainian-born, naturalized Russian director, producer, and screenwriter, considered one of the most influential figures in Eastern European audiovisual media. After a career in documentary filmmaking, centred on the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he founded the Ukrainian network 1+1 and directed Russia’s CTC Media, modernizing the television industry. As a producer, he has collaborated with directors like Andrey Zvyagintsev. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he publicly opposed the war and was sentenced in absentia.
Andriy Alferov is a Ukrainian film critic and director, and a member of the National Film Academy of Ukraine. Host of Cinema with Alferov on Radio Vesti, he has written for outlets such as Kommersant and Izvestia Ukraine, and founded the A KINO and No Name cinema clubs. In 2024, he presented Dissident, co-directed with Stanislaw Gurenko, at the Torino Film Festival, earning a special mention.
