Description
The central figure is a Soviet intellectual who comes to realise that he has not lived his own life. His son emigrates; for him this means collapse. He has always settled for what there was, and he cannot fathom the person closest to him, who, in search of a better life, puts the family at risk. Worse still is the realisation that the life has been wasted, and the one thing that mattered most was left undone. Dostoevsky’s gambling fever has long held him; he sees that he too has to put everything on the line. The film draws on the life of Leonid Tsypkin, on his book Summer in Baden-Baden, and on Anna Dostoevskaya’s diary.
About the director:
Anton Zhelnov
Documentary director, journalist, and television presenter. He graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Winner of the Golden Eagle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film for Bondarchuk. Battle (2022) and a TEFI Award for the documentary project Brodsky Is Not a Poet (2014). Other films include Sasha Sokolov. The Last Russian Writer (2017), Poor Folk. The Kabakovs (2018), and Sorokin Trip (2019). Summer in Baden-Baden is his first fiction feature as director.