- year : 2022
- country : Russia
- timing : 104'
- genre : documentary
- producer : Elena Demidova
- production : Passanger Film Studio
written by Elena Demidova
produced by Liza Antonova
DoP Elena Demidova
sound by Yuri Geddert
editors Elena Demidova, Kirill Sakharnov
Marina Kleshcheva is an actress and theater director. She collaborated with and starred in the films shot by Cannes Film Festival Award winners Kirill Serebrennikov and Sergey Loznitsa. But many years ago she worked in the market; she did two terms in prison; she led a life in a very disadvantaged environment. The camera follows her during the course of four years as she tries to change her life. The new life is difficult, the old life pulls her back. Often, she does not even have enough money to buy cigarettes. And when everything is more or less getting better, illness and the loss of her closest loved ones falls upon her shoulders. How does she cope with this, how does she live her exhausting and troubling life? And where is the moment when you can say - “now I’m on this shore, for good”?
- International Festival of Audiovisual Anthropology "Days of Ethnographic Cinema" (2022, Russia, Moscow)
- Nika Award, Long list (2024, Russia, Moscow)
Director’s statement
This story is vitally important for me, in a certain sense it’s very personal. Just like my protagonist, I changed my life and profession rather drastically right in the middle of my life. And I once began a different life, the old life was constantly pulling back, although of course Marina started from a position that was far lower and farther from her current life!
First of all, this is a universal story of a woman being at the turn of her fate, when she tries to rise from the very bottom to a normal life, to embrace her creativity, to be recognized for her talent. This has always been the subject of cinema, fiction and non-fiction.
Secondly, this is a gender story of a woman who builds her life despite all the losses, trials and circumstances.
And, finally, this story takes us to the very center of the public life of pre-war Russia - we see protest demonstrations, we witness the story of Kirill Serebrennikov, a campaign in support of the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who was later declared a terrorist and was imprisoned in Russia, the work of human rights activists, the modern independent and honest theatre - Teatr.doc, which puts on political performances and is constantly under pressure from the state authorities.
However, the main reason why I stubbornly made this movie for so many years (four years of filming, then searching for money for editing, crowdfunding) is that our protagonist is simply a unique, shinign person, she lives her life here and now, not being afraid of the camera, she is very honest, emotional, she is a real documentary film hero... or heroine!
ABOUT THE FILM DIRECTOR:
Elena Demidova is a Russian film director, scriptwriter and producer. Graduated from Moscow State Technical University, Voronezh State University and film school “Internews” as a film director. Documentaries by Elena Demidova are winners of many international film festivals, in 2016 she made her debut in the feature film.
FILMOGRAPHY:
2022 - "The third life of Marina Kleshcheva", documentary
2020 - "Alice from Wonderland", documentary
2019 - "Alexander Kolchak. Unfinished story", documentary
2018 - "The mystery of a Buryat lama", documentary
2018 - "Paris 1986", documentary
2016 - "The last man", documentary
2016 - "Touch of wind", full-length film
2016 - "From parade to the Oscar", documentary
2014 - "Men’s choice", documentary
2012 - "Sasha, Lena and Iron Dragon", documentary
2011 - "Lesha", documentary
2010 - "Cranberry Island", documentary
2008 - "It's time to go home", documentary
2007 - "The multiplication table", documentary
2007 - "Mohicans", documentary
2006 - "Holly Week", documentary
2006 - "Live water", documentary
