Inside the Moscow-based studio Mal De Mer Films, diverse artistic methods and ways of seeing the world converge. Three new and distinct works are presented in the Sky Cinema programme.

In Polynices’ Exile, an improvised performance unfolds by the sea, staged by Anatoly Vasiliev’s students. It is an honest, at times even inelaborate attempt to approach the essence of the Theban cycle of tragedies, while preserving the unbridgeable distance between the eternally youthful and eternally ancient world of antiquity. Another film in this section, In a Grove, explores the very nature of vision: a muted observation of young people making their own cinema. With simple tools, the filmmaker creates a slow, visionary work that opens up a captivating world hidden among bamboo thickets. In Sal’s Way, painter Salvatore Del Deo becomes a guide into the life of a small American town. This vital cinematic portrait intertwines urban landscapes, accidental observations, and reflections on the artist’s journey.

Mal De Mer Films is an independent Moscow studio founded in 2018 by Anton Lukin and Gleb Piryatinskiy during the making of their first feature film Artemisia (2019). Its scope is wide-ranging, spanning documentary and fiction, video, and music.