Calvert 22 Foundation is delighted to partner with the Barbican Centre to bring more New East Cinema to London through a bi-monthly film series curated by The New Social. From April 2016 onwards, each month will see one film screened at Calvert 22 and one at the Barbican cinema.
New East Cinema will look across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia to uncover the most thought-provoking, daring and vibrant cinema coming from today’s “New East”.
The series goes in search of filmmakers who are not only redefining the cinematic language of their respective countries, but are asking what this “post-Soviet” or “post-socialist” landscape may look like and what legacy it bears. Whether surreal, outright fantastical, outlandish or sobering, these films share a hunger for personal and authentic storytelling and ways of seeing.
The series will launch with a screening of The Fool and a talk with director Yury Bykov.
The Fool
Russia, 2014, dir. Yury Bykov
The Fool offers an uncompromising portrayal of contemporary Russian society. Its eponymous protagonist is Dima Nikitin, a simple, honest man who decides to follow his own conscience on a quest for integrity in a world that has become corrupt and hostile to displays of morality and kindness.
Dima attempts to save the 800 residents of a building on the brink of collapse, and the film unfolds during a single night, revealing the urgency of the pending crisis and disastrous scale of the status quo. Dima’s actions serve to highlight a society gone astray, in which his struggle for equality and selflessness perennially goes amiss.
As with his previous films, like The Major (2013), which was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival (Critics’ Week), Bykov writes, directs, acts in and composes the music for his films. He does not shy away from turning his camera to small pockets of Russian society, microcosms which play out the difficulties and corruption of the wider world.
The Fool was awarded three prizes at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival, including Best Actor.
