Debate

DIRECTOR: Nikolai Geffele Producer: Oleg Shardin and Violetta Krechetova 2024, 123‘, Germany, language: russian, Production company: Upright Films territories: world

In the not-too-distant future, a Nobel prize winner Anna (Natalia Dymchenko) is running for president with virtually no chance of winning. Being in the midst of a personal and reputation’s crisis, she nevertheless participates in the first democratic televised debates. During the two hours that they go, she will have to take on her shoulders the heaviest burden of responsibility and realize that the future of her country is inextricably linked with her fate. The eyes of all citizens are fixed on her, which means that at the decisive moment she will have to make the most difficult choice.

Cast:
Masha Mashkova — Maria

Filipp Avdeev — Roman

Natalia Dymchenko — Anna

Eugeniusz Malinowski — Victor

Wojciech Urbanski — Ivan

Maxim Busel — Max

Valentina Gartsueva — Lisa

Directors statement

A few years ago, I came across an interview of President Richard Nixon with TV journalist David Frost. The moment when Nixon apologizes for failing democracy and all young Americans left a deep impression on me. Then I thought what an important liberating experience it was for Americans when the president (albeit a former one) apologized to them. How important it was for them to hear those words.

After that, I stumbled upon the Joe Biden-Donald Trump presidential debate and found I couldn’t put it down. Then I decided to watch other American debates and realized that this is one of the most important and at the same time absolutely underestimated spectacles on television. Added to this is the fact that there has never been such a debate in Russia, although it is the debate (in the US) that gives voters the opportunity to “get acquainted” with the candidate before the election.

Thus was born the idea of ​​a plot that unfolds around and during the first presidential debate. Usually politicians are not the kind of people you want to have coffee and chat with. Therefore, I wanted to make the heroes of this scenario those people with whom I would gladly sit at the same table. So my heroes are not exactly politicians, they are decent people who, by some miracle, found themselves inside the political system and at the same time retained their souls.

Nikolai Geffele