Helga Landauer

Minsk, Belarus, 1996. Velya, an aspiring DJ, wants to move to Chicago to make her dreams come true, but bureaucracy, a phone line and the human condition will put obstacles in her way that will be difficult to avoid.

The 20th Century begins. Carefree people roam from one attraction to another, laughing, renting boats and carriages, betting, smoking, playing with sand, changing clothes, flirting. As they circle around seashores, parks and streets, they look for more diversions. They are seeking for the ways to distract themselves from the fact that the war is about to start, that the summer is coming to an end, that they are long dead.

A Film about Anna Akhmatova is not a biopic. Rather, it is a live process of recreating a story akin to ancient tragedy. Before the viewer's eyes it emerges from archival and modern footage, unique sound recordings of Akhmatova's voice, her poems and photographs, and the many paintings and portraits of her, with the commentary of the poet Anatoly Naiman, who knew Akhmatova in her last years.