Section: Spectrum

YUMORIST

the HUMORIST

Mikhail Idov
Russia, Latvia, Czech Republic, 2019, 101 Min

1984. Boris, a Russian-Jewish stand-up comedian, feels limited not only by the regime and the censors, but also by his own insecurity. The combination of fame and the lack of personal freedom drives him crazy, and his family suffers from his quick temper. One night, when the KGB gets him out of bed for a private performance for a cosmonaut, he realizes how little control he has over his own life.

A. Surkala

When he is forced to perform at the birthday party of an elite politician’s wife, he blows his top and takes revenge. Set in the 1980s, the film shows a country in which power and decadence were not far apart and the collapse of the USSR was imminent. © JFBB With a keen sense for the uncomfortable position of a privileged person who is flattered by the powerful and yet soon finds himself under the spotlight if he refuses to play the harmless fool, director and screenwriter Michael Idov narrates a multi-faceted portrait of an artist. Despite the surreal scenes this is anything but a comedy: instead Boris is doomed to telling cheap jokes for a mass audience and giving private shows for the nomenklatura. His fame offers no protection: if anything, he's more vulnerable as a result and, in the end, risks his life. Michael Idov, who also wrote the screenplay for Kirill Serebrennikov's LETO (FFC 2018), creates in THE HUMORIST a tragic clown whose story draws inspiration from real-life figures. BB

Filmformat
DCP | Farbe / colour
Drehbuch
Michael Idov
Kamera
Alexander Surkala
Ton
Michal Deliopulos
Schnitt
Michal Lánský
Ausstattung
Aivars Žukovskis
Musik
David Mason
Darsteller
Aleksey Agranovich, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Alisa Khazanova, Pavel Ilyin, Artem Volobuev
Produzent
Artem Vasilyev
Produktion
Metrafilms
Co-Produktion
Sirena Film, Tasse Film
Kontakt
m-appeal world sales UG
Magdalena Banasik
films@m-appeal.com
Prinzessinnenstr. 16
10969 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 61 50 75 05
+49 30 27 58 28 72
Mikhail Idov

Mikhail Idov - born in 1976 in Riga, Latvia. In 1992 he emigrated to the USA. Before his directing debut with THE HUMORIST he wrote novels and screenplays, among others for Kirill Serebrennikov's film LETO (FFC 2018), the Russian box office hit SOULLESS and the acclaimed Russian TV series LONDONGRAD. He has lived in Berlin for several years.

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