22.11.2025 at 17:00. Conversation | Dar band / Citizen-Inmate | Insomnia | Merging Bodies | Aoi Yamada | Samba Infinito | The Death of a Hero, Moscow, «Moskino. Salut»

Time and place

Saturday, 22 November 2025 at 17:00
Moscow, «Moskino. Salut»: Москва, Кедрова ул., 14 к. 3
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Description

Aoi Yamada

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Vitalii Akimov

Cast: Aoi Yamada

Year: 2025

Country: France

Duration: 9 min.

Languages: Japanese

Description

How to become mercury.

About the director:

Vitalii Akimov
Director, cinematographer, photographer. Born in Arsenyev, Primorsky Krai. In 2022, he graduated from the Moscow School of New Cinema, under the mentorship of Dmitry Mamulia. The world premiere of his directorial debut, The Boy (2020), took place at IDFA, later earning the Danya Gurevich Award for Best Cinematography at the 30th Message to Man International Film Festival and a special mention at the European Film Festival Palić. His second film, The Last Summer, won the Jury Prize at Artdocfest. Aoi Yamada is his third work.

Insomnia

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Artyom Senkovsky, Xenia Gaun

Year: 2025

Country: Russia

Duration: 9 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

World premiere

A train carries sleeping passengers. The monotonous clatter of wheels marks the journey’s progress. What lies ahead, and how long will this night endure? No one knows. There is only memory. Or a dream. Or delirium.

About the director:

Artyom Senkovsky
Filmmaker. Born in 1998 in Izhevsk. In 2020, he graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Journalism. He then enrolled in the general directing workshop at the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema. In 2023, he directed his debut live-action short film, Garden.

Xenia Gaun
Cinematographer, director. Born in 1999 in Tobolsk. After four years studying journalism in St. Petersburg, she enrolled in the general directing workshop at the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema in 2021. In her first year, she worked as cinematographer on four short films and, after graduating in 2023, shot another film as director of photography.

 

In 2024, the filmmakers competed in the International Competition of the 34th Message to Man International Film Festival with their short documentary Great People.

Merging Bodies

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Adrian Paci

Operator: Erfort Kuke

Screenwriter: Adrian Paci

Producer: Adrian Paci

Producer company : Laminazione Sottile, Kube Studios

Year: 2024

Country: Italy-Albania

Duration: 23 min.

Languages: no dialogue

Description

Russian premiere

An aluminium processing plant. The bodies of workers, their tools, and the space where they toil.

About the director:

Adrian Paci
Born in Shkodër, Albania in 1969, he is a contemporary artist based in Milan and Shkodër. Educated at the Akademia e Arteve in Tirana, he fled Albania in 1997 during political unrest. His multidisciplinary practice—spanning video, installation, painting, and photography—explores exile, identity, and displacement, often rooted in personal experience. Notable works include Apparizione (2001), Home to Go (2001), and The Column (2013). His work has been shown at the Venice Biennale, MoMA PS1, Tate Modern, and MAXXI.

Dar band / Citizen-Inmate

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Hesam Eslami

Screenwriter: Hesam Eslami

Producer: Hesam Eslami

Producer company : Aras Films

Year: 2025

Country: Iran

Duration: 15 min.

Languages: Farsi

Description

Russian premiere

The electronic monitoring has transformed Tehran into a digital panopticon. But what happens when the roles are reversed and the focus is turned on the surveillants?

About the director:

Hesam Eslami
Tehran-based filmmaker, directing and producing documentaries for international television and cinema since 2013. He earned his BFA and MA in Cinema from the Tehran University of Art. His recent work focuses on the margins of Iranian society, including 20th Circuit Suspects (Hot Docs, 2017), The Marriage Project (Visions du Réel, 2020), and A Band of Dreamers and a Judge (IDFA, 2023).

Samba Infinito

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Leonardo Martinelli

Operator: João Atala

Screenwriter: Leonardo Martinelli

Cast: Alexandre Amador, Miguel Leonardo, Camila Pitanga, Gilberto Gil

Producer: Renan Barbosa Brandão, Rafael Teixeira, Leonardo Martinelli, Lucas H. Rossi, Clara Marquardt, Justin Pechberty, Damien Megherbi

Year: 2025

Country: Brazil-France

Duration: 15 min.

Languages: Portuguese

Description

Russian premiere

During Rio’s Carnival, a street cleaner struggles with the loss of his sister and his work obligations. Amid the celebrations, he finds a lost child and sets out to help him. Carnival is a time when even those forever gone can return. A phantasmagorical film by inventive Brazilian filmmaker Leonardo Martinelli.

About the director:

Leonardo Martinelli
Filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro. His film Neon Phantom won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at the Locarno Film Festival. His shorts have been selected at festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Locarno, Toronto, San Sebastián, BFI London, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs, Montreal, Biarritz, Toulouse and others. He also holds a Master’s degree in Communication from PUC-Rio and is currently developing his first feature film, selected for the Locarno Residency and the Hubert Bals Fund.

En hjältes död / The Death of a Hero

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Karin Franz Körlof

Operator: Ari Willey

Screenwriter: Karin Franz Körlof

Cast: Svante Malm, Hulda Lind Jóhannsdóttir, Weine Johansson

Producer: Hanna Hannerz Simå, Elin Bennett

Producer company : Nordantill film

Year: 2024

Country: Sweden

Duration: 15 min.

Languages: Swedish

Description

Russian premiere

Sensational news: a young man plans to jump from a church belfry to reignite the waning interest in religion among the congregation.

About the director:

Karin Franz Körlof
Screenwriter, actress and director. Educated at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, she has acted in numerous films, TV productions and plays. Karin has written and directed four short films as well as one play, Barbienazisten (The Barbie Nazi).

Conversation

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Masha Godovannaya

Producer: Masha Godovannaya

Producer company : Sales (RF) Masha Godovannaya

Year: 2025

Country: Russia-Mexico

Duration: 28 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

World premiere

The film is based on a spontaneous interview with Godovannaya’s father, recorded at an airport in the summer of 2022. For the first time, he shares his family album, revealing moments of childhood, growing up, military service, and photos of cherished friends, relatives, children, and grandchildren, alongside stories of relocations, encounters, and partings.

About the director:

Masha Godovannaya
Director, artist, and curator. Born in 1976 in Moscow, she has lived in New York, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Mexico City. She created numerous experimental films, installations, and performances, with her films featured at international film festivals including Rotterdam, London, Oberhausen, Galway, and Lumen, as well as the Vienna Triennial and the Centre Pompidou. Her works are held in collections at the State Russian Museum, the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, and in Parisian and New York collections. Godovannaya served on the jury for the In Silico programme at the 2013 Message to Man IFF; in 2024, she participated in the National Competition with her film There Is Still More to Come.



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