Lichtfilm

At the age of seventeen, Irina Chistyakova looks back at an international concert career spanning ten years. Irina is the youngest of the four protagonists of the film Russia's Wonder Children made in 2000. By now seventeen years old, she is going through a drama that many prodigies experience: while they were children, they were able to stun audiences with the contrast of their delicate appearances and precocious talents. Like Irina, Nikita Mndoyants (18), Dmitry Krutogolovy (19), and Elena Kolesnichenko (25), are still showered with praise and distinction. But what price did they have to pay for it?

"Cause of Death Unknown" - Carola Neher (1900-1942) actress, singer and feminist. Brecht wrote the role Polly Peachum for her. She practiced boxing with Marlene Dietrich. After Hitler seized power, thousands of German communists and anti-fascists fled to the Soviet Union, the "fatherland of the working people". The tragedy of German communism is that the vast majority of them perished or were lost during Stalin's "cleansing". Carola Neher is one of the fate figures of that time. In the 20s, she belonged to the narrow circle of Brecht actresses. The film accompanies her son Georg Becker in search of his mother's traces in the sinking Soviet Union.

Pjotr Pawlenski was arrested after various artistic demonstrations against the russian regime. It's a film about his scandalous protest for example pinning his genatiles on the Red Square in Moscow and his motivation and inspiration fighting to be seen and heard.

The Putin era in Russian politics began on 31 December 1999, shortly before the millennium celebrations. The children born on that day and at the turn of the millennium have now come of age. They have only ever known ex-KGB man Vladimir Putin at the pinnacle of power. What do this generation think and feel? Some are ardent Putin opponents, for others he is an idol. Some want to leave the country others want to fight for change. From the perspective of these millennium children, torn between private dreams and political aspirations, a nuanced portrait of the ‚Putin generation‘ emerges.