Description
Two directors open a casting call for a film about the 1990s. The process turns into a zone of uncertainty where the line between document and fiction disappears. A barely perceptible fault in the process — an actor, obsessed with “getting it right” — costs them control and pulls them in. At the edge of that experience, between life and death, both directors find themselves inside their own film, which was never made.
About the directors:
Ilya Khotinenko
Filmmaker. In 1994, he entered VGIK and studied film directing in Aleksei Gabrilovich’sworkshop of auteur television cinema, and later continued his studies in Vladimir Khotinenko’sworkshop of fiction directing. In 1999, he made his feature debut with News. In 2002, he released the independent tragicomedy Odyssey. The Year 1989. He has directed some 30 films and series. His films have screened at Russia’s leading festivals, including Window to Europe, Mayak, and Kinotavr; Asphalt Sun received a Special Jury Prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Svyatoslava Sagunova
Filmmaker and video artist. Born in 1999 in Naberezhnye Chelny. In 2018, she entered the directing faculty of VGIK, on Vadim Abdrashitov’s fiction-directing course. In 2026, she completed Viktor Alimpiev’s video-art workshop at the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema.