A shiny white SUV pulled up to a curb. Two Dutch women jumped out, struggling with the thick padding of their parkas. They expertly grabbed a large camera and an extended mike, whirling around to survey their battle terrain. They found the shabby Soviet-era courtyard abuzz: men and women, red-nosed and loud, huddled in groups to celebrate the Russian version of Mother’s/Women’s Day. March 8th marked the crew’s first day of filming. The women planned to run some test shots, but their subjects started falling, laughing, crawling, rising and falling again. It was perfect.

Drunks, stray dogs, snow and inherently Russian babushkas colour a dead poet’s world, painted in Aliona van der Horst’s latest documentary Boris Ryzhy. Another “sensational” snapshot of one of the most criminal Russian neighbourhoods; another tragic suicide of a contemporary bard, singing from the limbo that separates intellectual and underground circles—the award-winning Amsterdam filmmaker did not want that story. (more…)