Let his flesh be healthier than in his youth;
Let him return to his younger days.
After breaking onto the European film festival scene in 2021 with seven stunning features at the ready, 24-year-old Russian filmmaker Vadim Kostrov has quickly proved himself as an astute chronicler of poets, punks, misfits, and squatters of all stripes. With a deliriously spaced-out filmmaking approach that modelates between documentary and fiction, ethnography and autobiography, slow cinema and bracing handheld directness, Kostrov’s work is deeply attuned to the seasonal flows of Nizhny Tagil, his hometown located in the mountainous Ural region. Kostrov now lives in Paris after deciding to flee Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
This June, Spectacle and UnionDocs are honored to partner-up and introduce Kostrov’s burgeoning cinematic corpus to NYC in seasonal doses, starting with a selection of his beaming, nostalgic summer films: LOFT-UNDERGROUND (2019), ORPHEUS (2020), NARODNAYA (2020), and SUMMER (2021). To celebrate the North American premiere of his work and observe the solstice, Kostrov will participate in remote Q&As throughout the month.
ЧЕРДАК-АНДЕГРАУНД
(LOFT-UNDERGROUND)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2019
121 mins. Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
TICKETS HERE
SATURDAY, JUNE 3 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
FRIDAY, JUNE 30 – 5 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
TICKETS HERE
TUESDAY, JUNE 13 – 10 PM
To properly contextualize Kostrov’s own place in the landscape of Russian art collectives would require a thorough historiography on the subject. Thankfully, Kostrov has done just that in this epic archival VHS accounting of Moscow squat culture. Beginning in the Soviet ‘80s and hypnotically colliding into the Putinist present halfway through, Kostrov traces a continuity of dreamers occupying the margins.
ОРФЕЙ
(ORPHEUS)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2020
116 mins. Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
TICKETS HERE
MONDAY, JUNE 5 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
FRIDAY, JUNE 16 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
(These events are $10.)
TICKETS HERE
SATURDAY, JUNE 24 – 10 PM
A solemn goodbye and an aquatic embrace of new beginnings. ORPHEUS forms its late-summer narrative from Kostrov’s return from Moscow to Nizhny Tagil to say farewell to his ex-partner Anya. While the director’s presence is always felt, his camera feels less like an intrusive element than an open space that allows Anya and other passing characters to perform and contemplate their changing worlds.
НАРОДНАЯ
(NARODNAYA)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2020
110 mins. Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
TICKETS HERE
TUESDAY, JUNE 6 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 17 – 7:30 PM
TICKETS HERE
SATURDAY, JUNE 10 – 3 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
The first of Kostrov’s concert film trilogy, NARODNAYA (which can translate to “folk”, “the people”, or “grassroots”) documents the explosive opening of the titular Tagil gallery with a set list of performances that includes hip-hop, rock, and bone-rattling noise. Kostrov’s camera eye is placed right in the center as a humble garage transforms into an energized microcosm of communal catharsis.
ЛЕТО
(SUMMER)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2021
109 mins. Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
TICKETS HERE
THURSDAY, JUNE 1 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 – 7:30 with filmmaker Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
TICKETS HERE
SATURDAY, JUNE 17 – 10 PM
Following the Narodnaya trilogy, Kostrov sets the summer as another starting point in the first installment of his autobiographical seasons cycle. SUMMER sees the director at 8-years-old as he spends the summer with his half-sister Christina. They watch passing thunderstorms, rendezvous with revelrous teenagers, and enjoy other transitory moments of restorative bliss.
Presented in partnership with UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art.