KOMBINAT
Gabriel Tejedor | Switzerland, Russia 2020 | 76 Min. | OmeU
Magnitogorsk, an industrial city in the heart of Russia, thrives on its massive steelworks, the Kombinat. Young mother Lena, daughter and granddaughter of steelworkers, gives dance lessons, one of the factory’s many activities. Her student Sasha wants to use salsa lessons to forget the pressure in the metallurgical combine. All the while, his brother and his wife plan to leave Magnitogorsk and leave behind the permanent air pollution, the cause for their daughter’s intellectual disability.
KOMBINAT takes us to contemporary Russia, wherein the dreary shadow of rusty chimneys and dazzling company celebrations in Soviet splendor still raise hope for a better life.
Director: Gabriel Tejedor
Writer: Gabriel Tejedor
Producer: Xavier Derigo
Screenings and Awards
2020 – Visions du Reel – Int. Competition (National & world premiere)
Encounters IDFF Cape Town
Rotterdam Architecture FF
Jean Rouch FF
Flahertiana, Provinziale – Special Jury Award
Hainan Island IFF China
Art Doc Fest
FF Dirriti Umani Lugano
London Film Week
Thin Line USA
Green Image FF Japan
Biography
Born in 1978 in Switzerland, Gabriel Tejedor works as a director and journalist. Mainly focused on social transitions and utopias in Russia and ex-soviet republics, he investigates the links between the inhabitants and their history as well as their relationship to authority. Gabriel directed La Trace in 2014, about the inhabitants of the Kolyma region, then Mayskaya str. (2017) about the dilemmas of a 18 year old Belarusian citizen voting for the first time. The latter received a special mention at Visions du réel festival and was screened in IDFA and many other festivals.
His film Kombinat (2020) takes place in the industrial town of Magnitogorsk (Russia) and follows metal workers who dance salsa in the evening. The film is focused on the adaptation of the human being to a hostile environment (very polluted, no professional perspectives, corruption).
