ANGELS OF REVOLUTION

The year is 1934 and the Soviet Union is still young. Polina Schneider – a secret weapon for the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution – has been chosen once again for a special mission: she has been tasked with converting the indigenous peoples of Western Siberia, the Khanty and Nenets, to communism. Together with four former comrades – all of them avant-garde artists – she sets off to the Kazim to proclaim the teachings of Lenin with the means at her disposal. Alas, the pagan locals prove to be tough to crack and they continue to hold tight to their centuries-old shamanic rituals. Director Aleksey Fedorchenko has a soft spot for the ethnic minorities of the multi-ethnic Soviet state – as does his congenial scriptwriter Denis Osokin. Witness the furious Volga-Finn women of the Mari people at the centre of NEBESNYE ZHENY LUGOVYKH MARI / CELESTIAL WIVES OF THE MEADOW MARI, which was shown in the goEast Competition in 2013. Though his most recent work is indeed based on real events, it is – aside from its very moving final scene – staged in a similarly fantastic fashion as its aforementioned predecessor. With its mix of surreal wit, folkloristic kitsch and extraordinarily intricate narrative structure, ANGELS OF REVOLUTION breaks with established visual conventions.