As we mark three years since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Pushkin House, in partnership with the Russian Democratic Society presents an evening of film screenings. 

In Territory Without War (60 mins, 2023) directed by Taia Zubova, citizens of three countries attempt to build a new world. Ukrainians: a family from Mariupol, a mother and child with cerebral palsy from Odesa, and a young woman who evacuated her parents from the shelling in Avdiivka. Conscientious objectors from Russia – a young man who crossed the Kazakh border on foot, a family that refused to send their husband and father to war, and politically persecuted activists from Russia and Belarus. A couple from Russia, whose relationship was declared illegal by the state, which labelled the LGBT+ community as an “extremist organisation.” The film tells the story of solidarity and friendship between Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians, united by their experiences of war.

A Shaman’s Tale (75 mins, 2024) directed by Beata Bashkirova and Mikhail Bashkirov, is the story of a peculiar quest that lasted from March 2019 to January 2021 and became a little-known phenomenon in modern Russian political history. In 2019, a man, Alexander Gabychev, appeared on the roads of Siberia, claiming that he was a Shaman from Yakutia and stating that he had received a mission from God "to liberate the world from evil, represented by President Vladimir Putin, referred to as "the Demon"". Faced with the sudden media attention, the authorities ordered the arrest of the man in September 2019, sent him back to his hometown, and locked him up in a psychiatric clinic. 

Both movies are in Russian with English subtitles.

In partnership with New Generation Europe Foundation. 

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