THE PLOT

Vladimir Putin had prepared his country for war with Ukraine long before it began. Starting in 2012, a series of repressive laws were passed in Russia that label anyone publicly disagreeing with the official narrative as a “foreign agent.” In these circumstances, a group of activists (such as Vladimir Kara-Murza, recently released as part of the prisoner exchange on August 1, 2024), media, and independent Russian journalists (including the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, director of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta), strive to resist and continue to engage and oppose. However, immediately after the invasion, any of their activities become practically impossible. Filmed during a decisive year, just before and after the start of the conflict, the documentary is a portrait and celebration of the last defenders of democracy in Russia, who stubbornly seek to find a reason to hope for a different future for the country.

THE DIRECTORS

Anonymous 1 is a Russian independent journalist and documentarian. Their name is not disclosed for security reasons: the author is in Russia and continues to document what happens to people subjected to a dictatorship and military regime. With the start of the war in Ukraine, new Russian laws introduced military censorship, criminalizing journalism as a profession. For the evidence presented in this film, they risk up to 15 years in prison in Russia.

Askold Kurov was born in Uzbekistan in 1974 and currently lives in Turkey. In 2010, he graduated in documentary directing from the Marina Razbezhkina Film School in Moscow. In 2012, he was one of the directors of the award-winning documentary Winter, Go Away! His subsequent films Leninland, Children 404 and The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov have also received critical acclaim and have been screened at numerous festivals. His work focuses on human rights issues and social conflicts in contemporary Russia.