DIRECTOR ANDREI A. ESHPAI 

SCRIPT ROMAN ARTEMIEV, MARIA SMIRNOVA, ANDREI A. ESHPAI 

CAMERA RADU GORGOS 

DESIGN TATIANA PANTELEEVA 

MUSIC ANDREI ESHPAI

CAST: VITALY KISCHENKO, MARIA SMOLNIKOVA, ANNA SINYAKINA, ANASTASIA TSOI, RALUCA RACEAN GORGOS, SERGEY UDOVIK, ANTON KARTASHEV, ZOYA KAIDANOVSKAYA, ALEXEI SLAVKIN, VLADIMIR BOLSHOV, IVAN DOBRONRAVOV, ALEXANDER RAGULIN, YURI NIKULIN, YURI NIFONTOV 

PRODUCER ANDREI A. ESHPAI

PRODUCTION DEMARSH FILM COMPANY WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF RUSSIA

This film is about the fate of an artist and composer Sheremet. He lives in a world of his own completely shut off from social tribulations. Sometimes he seems to ignore people around him altogether. He creates paintings, composes music, meditates, stages rehearsals of his performances. Unexpectedly he becomes a witness of and then the prime suspect in the disappearance of a girl. Now he has to deal with the socium, with the cruel world, with the misunderstandings and the literal urge of people to pointlessly destroy each other. An artist’s inability to stand up to evil becomes the main theme of the film. What can he counter the cruel reality with? How can he solve the problems which suddenly propelled him to the borderline between life and death? To what extent is the man a master of his own life or are we all merely participants in a performance directed by someone else?

 

ANDREI A. ESHPAI

Born in Moscow in 1956 in the family of composer Andrei Eshpai. In 1980 he graduated from VGIK (class of L.Kulidzhanov and T.Lioznova). His diploma work, short “Zvana” (1980) won 3 awards at the VGIK student film festival. Winner of Russian film awards Nika and Golden Eagle, prizewinner of national and international film festivals. Since 2000 he is a professor in the class of film directing at VGIK. His filmography includes “The Jester” (1988), “Humiliated and Insulted” (1991), “Blooming Hill in the Barren Field” (2001), “The Children of Arbat Street” (2004, TV series), “Ellipsis” (2006), “The Event” (2008), “Ivan the Terrible” (2009, TV series), “Elysium” (2010), “In The Dark” (2014), etc. Also he is the author of a number of documentary projects.