Moy papa Baryshnikov

Moscow, 1986: the beginning of glasnost and perestroika, but still, official Soviet culture maintains its claims to “high” art. The film’s protagonist is Boris Fishkin, a 14-year old lad and future dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet – or at least that is what his mother (played by Anna Mikhalkova) wants for him. His mother raises the boy on her own, sleeping her way through the American friends she meets in her job as interpreter. Thus somewhat neglected by his mother, yet pampered by his grandparents, Boris is prone to any influence of the world that surrounds him: be it the model ballet pupil and daughter of a Party official, or the illegal traders who sell any Soviet memorabilia for a few bucks, be it rock music or break-dance, both forbidden fruit of Soviet Russia. One day his mum – maybe hoping to instil in the boy an appreciation for ballet, at which he appears pretty useless and disinterested – tells him that his dad is none other than Mikhail Baryshnikov…. Only Baryshnikov is a dissident, and his expressive style that Boris tries to copy is far away from the conventional practices of the Bolshoi Theatre. And then Boris’s real father returns – from the prison camp…

Scripted by Dmitry Povolotsky, this is an extraordinary film about an era that has rarely so poignantly and accurately been caught on film – not least here thanks to DoP Sergei Mokritsky.