The film, set in a north-western industrial town in Russia, reveals the mechanism that entices human beings to voluntarily become a resource to the state. Can a person ever be free in a totalitarian society, where intricate and obscure structures take control of their mind-set from an early age? The film looks at the making of a Russian citizen from a fresh angle. The director’s subtle but demanding look reveals “the system” at work in the most benign-looking situations, in all aspects of the everyday. What happens to people’s free will and self-determination in such conditions? The film is a Nietzschean treat, asking the core existential question: is a human being ever born free?
 
Director: Ksenia Okhapkina. Estonia & Latvia (2019).
 
61 min. In Russian with English subtitles.
 
Watch trailer - click here.
 
Q & A to follow after the screening with Riho Vastrik, producer and Uldis Cekulis, co-producer of the film.
 
When: Tuesday, February 11, 4:30 pm and Saturday, February, 15, 6:30 pm
Where: DocFortnight @ MoMA, The Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center , 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please click here.