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A Journey of Dmitri Shostakovich - Documentary Monday March 31rd Kino Světozor

MOFFOM presents another night within the Documentary Mondays at Kino Světozor. A co-production film A Journey of Dmitri Shostakovich received many responses at the MOFFOM 2007 festival. Soviet Kitsch and agitprop feature alongside haunting, dreamlike imagery and music. Documentary Monday at Kino Světozor has reduced entrance fee of CZK 80.

 More at www.kinosvetozor.cz

 

Putěšestvije Dmitrija Šostakoviča / A Journey of Dmitri Shostakovich

2006 | Russia, USA | Russian, English | 74 min.

Director: Oksana Dvornichenko, Helga Landauer

Producer: Darya Zhuk

Editor: Vladimir Samorodov, Alexander Sokin

 

Near the end of his life in the early 1970s, Dmitri Shostakovich made a bizarre first voyage to the United States as a guest on a luxury Soviet cruise liner. The nine days of the journey form the basis for the nine chapters of this visually innovative documentary. Combining personal fragments from the composer’s recently-published journals and propaganda footage of the ship‘s onboard entertainment with jarring and unfamiliar archive materials serves to

illustrate the dark passage of Russian history in the 20th century. The film’s use of Soviet-era kitsch and agitprop alongside haunting and dreamlike imagery derives from and complements Shostakovich‘ s music, which itself is filled with moments of great lyricism and exaggerated sarcasm.