Of Caravan and the Dogs
Since 2012, a series of repressive laws were passed by the Government labelling everyone who publicly disagreed with the official narrative as ‘foreign agent’, a traitor of Russia. In these circumstances, a group of independent Russian media and activists with two Nobel Peace Prize winners among them – Dmitriy Muratov of Novaya Gazeta, and the NGO Memorial – are trying to resist and continue their work. Right after the invasion, another series of repressive laws was passed and overnight their work became virtually impossible. The journalists and activists are threatened with long prison sentences and forced to make difficult moral choices in the midst of total war censorship. Shot during one decisive year, before and after the invasion, the film portrays the last defenders of democracy in Russia.
Born in Uzbekistan in 1974. In 2010, he graduated in documentary filmmaking at the Marina Razbezhkina Film School in Moscow. In 2012 he was one of the directors of the award-winning documentary Winter, Go Away!. His next films Leninland (2013), Children 404 (2014) and The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov (2017) won critical acclaim and screened at numerous festivals. His work focuses on human rights issues and social conflicts in contemporary Russia.
