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Cinema: A Public Affair

Cinema: A Public Affair

documentary, 2015, HD, 104 mins

„A film begins when it ends. It begins in the conversation and exchange of opinions about it. That’s when the dream of what we’ve just seen crystallizes into reality. And in this process, we become better people, a little more free and open.“ (Naum Kleiman)

A cineastic journey into the world of Naum Kleiman, one of the most important intellectuals in Russia today. Naum Kleiman, an internationally acclaimed Eisenstein specialist, is the director of the „Musey Kino“, Moscow’s museum of cinema. Since 1989, the „Musey Kino“, has shown previously banned classics of world cinema and Soviet films. Many saw the „Musey Kino“, as Moscow ́s most important intellectual forum. In 2005, the Moscow municipality sold the „Musey Kino’s“ building and it became homeless. In October 2014, the Russian Minister of Culture fired Naum Kleiman as director. In protest, his entire team handed in their resignations. Scenes from iconic movies and interviews with Muscovites of different ages and social backgrounds form a documentary film collage which mirrors Russian reality today.

World Premiere at the 65. Berlin International Film Festival (Forum), Award for Best Documentary at filmkunstfest m-v (Schwerin)

Written & directed by: Tatiana Brandrup
Director of Photography: Martin Farkas, Tatiana Brandrup
Editors: Tatiana Brandrup, Arsen Yagdjyan
Original Score: Jonathan Bar Giora
Sound: Tatiana Brandrup
Sound Design: Michal Gideon
Dialogue Editor: Ariel Orshansky
Re-Recording Mixer: Michael Emeth
Online & Color Grading: Felix Trolldenier
Producer: Katrin Springer

Produced by Filmkantine UG in coproduction with Tatiana Brandrup
with the friendly support of German Films, Trollfilm Berlin and db Studio Tel Aviv
Project Development funded by German Federal Film Board (FFA) and DEFA-Stiftung

shot on location in Russia, Germany

with
Naum Kleiman, Maxim Pawlow, Vera Rumyanceva Kleiman, Emma Malaya, Kristina Yureevna, Anna Bulgakova, Olga Ulybysheva, Igor Belozerkovich, Erika und Ulrich Gregor, Larissa Malyukova, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Ivan Kulikov, Anton Masurov, Timur Mukanov and others

What are films and the cinema capable of accomplishing in the best case? There’s no one able to give a wiser answer to this complex question than Naum Kleiman. The Russian film historian and head of the legendary Eisenstein archive used to be the head of the “Musey Kino” in Moscow, which was closed in 2005. Cinema: A Public Affair by Tatiana Brandrup reconstructs the events leading up to Kleiman’s scandalous dismissal in summer 2014. “Cinema has the ability to turn people into citizens.” Only a few film excerpts are needed to grasp that Naum Kleiman’s understanding of cinema in today’s Russia can hardly be surpassed in terms of force and topicality.
(Press Release Berlinale, 22nd January 2015)

Contact Press:

Jelly Press – Agentur für Public Relations
Nikola Mirza
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Email: info@jellypress.de

World Sales:

Filmkantine UG
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Email: info@filmkantine.de