HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND
Marusya Syroechkovskaya | Sweden, Norway, France, Germany 2022 | 103 min. | Russian with English subtitles
WEDNESDAY, 22.05. | 9 pm
Kino De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
Like the rest of her generation, 16-year-old Marusya’s expression of freedom is severely restricted by the autocratic regime of the Russian ‘Depression Federation’ and so she decides to join the country’s suicide statistics by the end of the year. But then she meets Kimi and a love story develops between the two millennials. They film the fears and misery of their youth, guided by drugs and fuelled by grunge music. As Kimi’s addiction drives him deeper and deeper into the abyss, Marusya’s camera becomes her last chance to save herself.
Shot over 12 years, the film HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND is a personal cry from the heart and the message of a silenced generation.
Director: Marusya Syroechkovskaya
Cinematography: Marusya Syroechkovskaya, Kimi Morev
Editing: Qutaiba Barhamji
Sound: Yngve Leidulv Sætre, Thomas Angell Endresen
Production: Ksenia Gapchenko, Mario Adamson, Anita Norfolk, Alexandre Cornu, Marusya Syroechkovskaya
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Visions du Réel – April 2022 (World Premiere)
2022 Indielisboa (Portuguese Premiere)
2022 Dok.fest Munich (German Premiere)
2022 Subversive Film Festival
2022 ACID Cannes
2022 Docaviv IDFF (Israeli Premiere)
2022 Underhill Fest
2022 Yerevan IFF Golden Apricot
2022 Guanajuato IFF
BIOGRAPHY
Marusya Syroechkovskaya (1989) is a Moscow-born award-winning filmmaker and visual artist, who had to flee Russia as the March 2022 crackdown on opposition voices increased. Marusya studied filmmaking at the School for Documentary Film in Moscow under professor Marina Razbezhkina and received her MA in Film Directing at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow (graduated with honors).
Her student short, Exploration of Confinement received a Jury Award at the New Orleans Film Festival 2013 and qualified for the 2013 Academy Awards. It was also selected for the 35th Moscow International Film Festival, the Message to Man International Film Festival 2013, Tenerife Shorts Film Festival 2014, and a number of other international film festivals. Her training includes workshops such as Ex Oriente Film, Flahertiana, and IDFAcademy. Marusya is a 2015 Nipkow Program Fellow (Berlin, Germany).
