Directed by:
Andrei ZagdanskyScreenplay:
Andrei ZagdanskyCinematography:
Vladimir GuevskiyCast:
Leonid Brezhnev (a.f.), Fidel Castro (a.f.), Simone de Beauvoir (a.f.), Gerald Ford (a.f.), Yuri Gagarin (a.f.), Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (a.f.), Erich Honecker (a.f.) (more)Plots(1)
Parallel to more recent Russian history, Andrei Zagdansky tells us about the life of his father, Evgeni, who was born between the World Wars and who, as a young man aged 25, saw how the Nazis reduced his home city of Kiev to rubble. Evgeni left, returning years later with his family. Together with a subtle soundtrack, this rich montage of found footage, archive material and home movies evokes a world subject to radical change. Zagdansky's mother was what the Soviets at the time called a "cosmopolitan" - in other words a Jew, and a fact that was better to keep to yourself. The family did not live according to the Jewish laws and Andrei was not circumcised. After leaving the army in the 1950s, his father went to work in a film studio, making popular science films. While Evgeni was focusing on his career and Andrei and his sister were being brought up by their mother, the Soviet Union was "de-Stalinized" by Nikita Khrushchev, and Kiev received visits from important international political figures, artists and scientists. Not only does the son look back in this film on the life of his father; the father also writes letters to his son, who has left for America, full of personal reflections on the changing times and their life together, and concerns for his wellbeing. Somewhat bitterly, Evgeni concludes that, in spite of the vast physical distance between them, they have never been so close. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
(more)Cast
Leonid Brezhnev (a.f.)
Russian Empire
Best movies:
JFK (1991)
Underground (1995)
Executive Action (1973)
Fidel Castro (a.f.)
Cuba
Best movies:
Papa Hemingway in Cuba (2015) - a.f.
The Eichmann Show (2015) (TV movie) - a.f.
Simone de Beauvoir (a.f.)
France
Gerald Ford (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Forrest Gump (1994)
All the President's Men (1976) - a.f.
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Yuri Gagarin (a.f.)
Soviet Union
Best movies:
The Right Stuff (1983)
Gagarin: First in Space (2013) - a.f.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (a.f.)
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Erich Honecker (a.f.)
German Empire
Best movies:
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
Friendship! (2010)
Nikita Khrushchev (a.f.)
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Velikij polkovoděc Georgij Žukov (1995) - a.f.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) - a.f.
Yves Montand (a.f.)
Italy
Best movies:
Jean de Florette (1986)
Manon of the Spring (1986)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Richard Nixon (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
American Gangster (2007) - a.f.
The Doors (1991) - a.f.
All the President's Men (1976) - a.f.
Rudolf Nureyev (a.f.)
Soviet Union
Sergei Parajanov (a.f.)
Soviet Union
Jean-Paul Sartre (a.f.)
France
Simone Signoret (a.f.)
German Empire
Best movies:
The Confession (1970)
The Cat (1971)
The Sleeping Car Murders (1965)
Aleksandr Gelman (narrator)
Andrei Zagdansky (narrator)
Soviet Union