No Nation Without Culture

“The portraits depict president Putin, Kadyrov Senior and Kadyrov Junior. They observe me from everywhere. They penetrate my thoughts. It is almost impossible to believe and accept. Exactly a year ago I began to capture the feeling of totalitarianism that these portraits conveyed and did this through a distorted lens intentionally. It's 4 in the morning as I set out to film my home city’s streets of Grozny in Chechnya through the windows of a tinted car because such actions put me under threat of persecution. I am documenting the time of the birth of fascism in Russia.” 

This short film has been part of the programme Shorts: Facing the Past at the Movies that Matter Festival 2023.