Putin's Kiss
When We Were Young: All Films • 1h 25m
Lise Birk Pedersen • Denmark, U.S. • 2011
Before Nashi, teenage Masha had a pretty average middle-class life in Russia. At 16 she joined the democratic, anti-fascist and anti-oligarch-capitalist political youth movement, working her way up to leadership roles and eventually becoming the host of a state-funded television program. Over time, however, Masha forms friendships with other journalists, including Kremlin-critic Oleg Kashin, who surfaces one day brutally beaten. Cracks begin to form as her ideology, so certain in youth, is called into question.
Capturing the idealism and disenchantment of youth, Putin’s Kiss offers an unconventional glimpse inside the politics of contemporary Russia. Lise Birk Pedersen's first documentary premiered at IDFA - Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Sundance, where it won Best Cinematography - Documentary.
Up Next in When We Were Young: All Films
-
Rânia
Roberta Marques • Brazil • 2011 • An evocative portrait of female adolescence at the margins of society
Rânia lives with her mother in the slums of Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil. Though she dreams of being a dancer, she has to work hard to survive—after school she juggles multiple jobs, incl...
-
Salt of This Sea
Annemarie Jacir • Palestine • 2008 • A portrait of a woman's determination to reclaim her birthright.
Sixty years after her grandparents' exile from Jaffa, Soraya feels something is not right. Departing Broo...
-
Sister
Ursula Meier • 2012 • Switzerland • A ski resort drama with a powerful performance by Léa Seydoux.
At the very edge of adolescence, Simon lives with his sister Louise in a Swiss valley beneath a large mountain range. ...
