Elena Kostyuchenko

American filmmaker Julia Loktev, born in the Soviet Union, returned to Moscow in 2021 to make a documentary on the persistence of independent media journalism in Putin’s Russia—just months, as it turned out, before the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Structured in five chapters, Loktev’s film is an extraordinary vérité document of a moment of immense change and anxiety.

Yury Dud interviews famous figures, including musicians (mainly rappers), politicians, journalists, film directors, and businesspeople.