The Theory of New Genius

In 2012 two members of anarchistic female band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a Mordovian labor camp for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". Russian film collective Gogol’s Wives follow each step of the feminist punk band’s battle against Putin including their first disruptive performances on a trolley bus, shooting a video about transparent elections, a controversial performance in a Red Square cathedral, and footage shot in a jail cell. Support comes from many corners including Madonna who painted the words "Pussy Riot" on her back and wore a balaclava during her Moscow show. The documentary portrays the grim state of present-day Russia, a country starkly divided between conservatism and anarchy. Pussy Riot believes that art has to be free and they're willing to take it to extremes. "Pussycat made a mess in the house," they say, and the house is Russia. The filmmakers do not seek to moralize, they simply edit events and leave viewers to draw their own conclusions.

This is a poetic film set in the times of Lenin's NEP. A ballet dancer steals a brooch and gives it as a present to another dancer. This is a crime of passion. A mysterious black ball is after the heroine. She runs away from it and manages to give the brooch in an exquisite pirouette movement, as shiny as diamond facets. What gives a stone its dazzling luster are its polished facets. But the real gem is love, and it's much harder to get than any diamond in the world.

13 years ago, residents of the Dagestan village of Irganay suddenly woke up from the fact that their houses were full of water. It turned out that the authorities, without warning and preparation, put into operation the Irganay hydroelectric power station, as a result of which the gardens and houses of almost ten thousand people were flooded. The damage was estimated at 9.5 billion rubles, but the Irganay residents never received compensation from the state. What is happening now in the place where the most delicious apricots in Dagestan grew?

The Russian NGO Memorial was founded with the aim of examining human rights abuses committed during the Stalinist period. In the course of a show trial carried out in 2021 in Russia, the organisation was "liquidated". This is the chronicle of its dissolution.