A DELIRIUM INTO DECAY: A History of Putin’s Russia in Five Films

Film Talks

December 31, 2024 marked 25 years of Putin’s ironclad rule of Russia. Marked by brutal expansion into neighboring sovereign nations, repression of free speech, and diminishment of human rights, a country once hopeful for a democratic future has pulled the Iron Curtain up once again. The past ten years alone have forced creatives into innovative ways to digest and create works dealing with the current state. In this two hour lecture, we will dive deep into films from Russian filmmakers challenging the malady ensuing in the Kremlin through poignant an profound storytelling. We’ll study approaches these directors take in crafting stories that reflect national turmoil and reckoning with a degrading country, often while working under heavy censorship. Finally, we’ll address how the language of Russian auteurs has evolved up until the very start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Films discussed will include: Sisters (S. Bodrov Jr., 2001), Cargo 200 (A. Balabanov, 2007), Everybody Dies but Me (V. Gai Germanika, 2008), Leviathan (A. Zvyaginstev, 2014), and Petrov’s Flu (K. Serebrennikov, 2021).

Join us for a screening of Petrov’s Flu at the SIFF Center on Sunday, February 23, 2025.

Streaming Tickets grant access to the film talk virtually, live-streamed via Zoom from 7-9:00pm PT. Access to the recording is not provided after the live session.