Marianna Ilyina-Baltica

A documentary telling about the life of the most inconspicuous, but ones of the most important people in theatre. Prop masters, make-up artists, costume and lighting designers – they all don’t receive the proper praise.. but on the other hand, where is their creativity? About this and many other secrets of the cult Moscow theatre RAMT in the film by Matvey Nikolaev and Elena Tyukhanova. Filming took place at the Russian Academic Youth Theatre on June 28-29, as well as on November 4 and 6, 2021 in Moscow. Mounting was produced in January 2022. On February 6, a draft version of the film was released, but later the premiere date was postponed to February 16, due to a request to remove the scene of Elena Tyukhanova at the end of the costume part, where she leaves a historical photograph for the students of “Class-Center”, hugging Polina Lashkevich and Marianna Ilyina-Baltika. This version is kept private on YouTube and is 13 seconds longer.

One day Pavel, a young man wounded in the war, suddenly shows up at the home of a Moscow scientist name Krymov and claims to be his illegitimate son. Krymov denies this, but out of compassion he helps arrange a necessary operation for Pavel. Then certain things begin happening which suggest to Krymov that he may have a psychologically unstable fellow on his hands.