SEREBRENNIKOV

by Katja Fedulova

SYNOPSIS

Both at home and abroad, Kirill Serebrennikov (b. 1969) is Russia’s best known director. He revolutionised post-Soviet Russian theatre with lucid, witty, effervescent and often provocative productions for theatre, opera, and ballet. Russia’s top cultural institutions as well as prestigious international festivals have staged his work; his films won accolades in Cannes and around the world.

We tell the story of Serebrennikov’s phenomenal rise, told as he is falling. In August 2018, a court in Moscow placed him under house arrest for allegedly embezzling state subsidies. Observers agree that the charges against him are at least blown out of proportion, if not entirely fabricated. The film explores what makes Serebrennikov’s art great, and what really is behind the case against him.

DETAILS

52 mins

2019

Germany

Russian, French, German

CREDITS

Director: Katja Fedulova

Script: Katja Fedulova, Friederike Freier

Producer: Simone Baumann

Production Company: Saxonia Entertainment GmbH

Co-Producer: ZDF/ARTE

BIOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR - KATJA FEDULOVA

Katja Fedulova was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia), in 1975. She completed a one-year internship at the Mikhailovsky Classical Ballet and Opera Theatre as a stage and costume assistant after finishing secondary schooling. In 1993 she was accepted to the Vera Muchina Art Academy in St. Petersburg. One year later Katja went to Germany and started her studies at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel. She earned her degree there in 2000 and then moved to Berlin. She started a degree in cinematography in 2001 at the German Academy for Film and Television Berlin with Sophie Maintigneux, Slawomir Idziak, and Michael Ballhaus. She also attended a variety of seminars on film directing. Since 2004 Katja has been working as a freelancer cinematographer and director.

SELECT FESTIVALS

ART DOC FEST 2019〡FESTIVAL D'AVIGNON 2022

PRESS

"Excellent... an excursion into the aesthetics of contemporary theater, for all those who want to deal in detail with the fate of a Russian artist who got caught in the crossfire."
- Süddeutsche Zeitung