Braunschweig International Film Fest 22.10.2017
Review "Placebo: Alt.Russia"
When I first heard of Alt.Russia, my first thought was: "You have to watch it, it sounds great."
What a good idea to combine a tour with making contact to other artists! I thought I would have to watch it on DVD later, so I was very happy when I got the information, it would be shown at the Internationales Film Festival in Braunschweig! The festival exists since 1987. The founders of this festival established also a cinema, the movie of the band was shown in it.
Alt.Russia was filmed during the tour through Russia in 2014. The band gave concerts in 10 cities and had several meetings with alternative creative artist. They wanted to visit persons who do their own things despite the strict government.
Alt.Russia was filmed during the tour through Russia in 2014. The band gave concerts in 10 cities and had several meetings with alternative creative artist. They wanted to visit persons who do their own things despite the strict government.
The film starts with the travelling with the Trans-Siberian Railway and you can see the band in a good mood. They like this railway and the way to travel in it. They also travelled by car, train or plane during their tour.
The interviews and representations of the art alternate with footage and songs from the live gigs and the travelling.
They met an architect and visited some of his buildings in the style of constructionist architecture.
Also a drawer, she talks about drawing her movies. Its such a long process and sometimes at the end, she doesn't like them.
They talk about music and its influence beyond the borders of religion, countries or languages. He's a musician which a special flute.
They walk around with two streetartists, the young men hang their paintings on the front of abandoned buildings.
They met two young men who are doing visual art installations, for example in a church.
They met an independent tv broadcaster which is sponsored by donates. At the moment of the interview, it was in a bad condition and nobody knew if it could survive.
They talk with a photographer, she's known for making photos of couples who are expecting a child. She snaps them while her models are sleeping in their beds at night. During the interview she also snaps Stefan while listening to Bosco. He took also some pictures of her while listening to this song.
At the end Stefan is talking to the regime critical artist Pawlenski. I don't know if I would call his work "art", its more some kind of protest.
I enjoyed the movie very much. It's always something special for me to watch a movie in a cinema. I don't do this often.
You can see and feel how much love to the detail is in this movie. Stefan visited the tv broadcaster afterwards which was in a better condition now. He also visited the church in which the two visual artists exhibit their installation to have a look at the finished artwork.
If you like to watch behind the scenes or if you like interviews with the band, you should watch this movie. I really hope it will be available on DVD some day.
