Filmed over the course of one year, \u201cWhere Are We Headed?\u201d \u2013\u00a0recently picked up by Taskovski Films\u00a0\u2013 took director-cinematographer\u00a0Ruslan Fedotow\u00a0down into the Moscow Metro, where he found joy and sorrow commuting alongside each other every day. World premiering at\u00a0IDFA, where it also got the support of the Bertha Fund, it played in\u00a0EnergaCamerimage Film Festival\u2019s Documentary Features Competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking about this idea for a long time,\u201d Fedotow tells\u00a0Variety<\/em>. \u201cWhen I used to live in Belarus, taking the metro wasn\u2019t just about getting from one point to another. I liked to observe people there. It\u2019s a public space, like a library, a whole different life happening underground.\u201d<\/p>\n Admitting that the pandemic has influenced his plans, he still spent two and a half years developing the film. Showing the metro as a place where people escape the cold, read, meet up and celebrate.<\/p>\n \n \u201cI should probably keep on shooting, but in Russia, many people don\u2019t wear masks. They thought I was some inspector, trying to expose them,\u201d he says. Sometimes, weeks went by without capturing a single moment.<\/p>\n \u201cNastia Korkia, who is my co-producer, but also my partner, would ask: \u2018Did you \u2018catch\u2019 anything today?\u2019 I felt like a fisherman, coming home empty-handed. I thought about giving up, but then I would run into someone special again.\u201d Including a Santa Claus and a girl discussing the \u201cvastness\u201d of the Russian soul.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many people think I made these conversations up. But I didn\u2019t even speak to them! They were sitting there, eating clementines, talking about everything: Hitler, history, war, space, religion. On New Year\u2019s Eve \u2013 can you imagine? They didn\u2019t even ask what I was doing, they didn\u2019t care. Down there, people move in some kind of trance. I could be right in front of them and they wouldn\u2019t see me.\u201d<\/p>\n While also depicting protests following the arrest of Alexei Navalny, Fedotow didn\u2019t want to make a political film about the regime, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople ask me sometimes: \u2018Hey man, you are from Belarus, so how come you are showing Russia?\u2019 For me, there is still this connection between our countries. We both have to deal with police government, we face a lot of similar problems \u2013 also when it comes to our personal freedom. These protests? That\u2019s our life. It just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he decided to portray problematic issues with lightness, fishing for hope wherever he could find it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt couldn\u2019t be just about pain and sadness,\u201d he says, crediting Korkia with the film\u2019s absurd humor.<\/p>\n \u201cShe would say: \u2018It\u2019s a bit dark.\u2019 Now, it\u2019s tragicomic. You feel bad for these people, fooled by the propaganda, but you feel frightened as well. Sometimes, it was hard to find these funny moments, or even love. I don\u2019t know why. Maybe that\u2019s how it is in Moscow? Love lives there, but it\u2019s hard to find it sometimes. Unlike drunk people.\u201d<\/p>\n Fedotow wanted to focus on brief encounters in the film, capture small details, things that happen suddenly and unexpectedly.<\/p>\n \u201cNastia would ask why I am not following these people until the end. I just wanted to enjoy the moment, that\u2019s it; be this invisible cinematographer dressed in black, doing everything on his own. Let\u2019s take this guy, walking around with a chandelier. For me, he is looking for light, or maybe he can finally bring it to someone else. It\u2019s hopeful for me.\u201d<\/p>\n He did try to reach out to some of his protagonists, however, not that they appreciated the intrusion.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the film, I show this one woman, standing next to the statue. She just wouldn\u2019t leave; she kept looking at it. I decided to ask her about it. For myself, not for the film. But she was surprised to see me, didn\u2019t tell me anything and just left. Maybe it\u2019s better not to know. This way, we can just keep on wondering.\u201d<\/p>\n Filmed over the course of one year, \u201cWhere Are We Headed?\u201d \u2013\u00a0recently picked up by Taskovski Films\u00a0\u2013 took director-cinematographer\u00a0Ruslan Fedotow\u00a0down into the Moscow Metro, where he found joy and sorrow commuting alongside each other every day. World premiering at\u00a0IDFA, where it also got the support of the Bertha Fund, it played in\u00a0EnergaCamerimage Film Festival\u2019s Documentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7036],"tags":[8884,8885,8883],"class_list":["post-14530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ruslan-fedotow-depicts","tag-universe-of-the-moscow-metro","tag-where-are-we-headed"],"yoast_head":"\n