Do not quench the Spirit.
…
Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good.

Spectacle and UnionDocs present the third entry in KOSTROV’S SEASONS just in time for a year’s end hibernation. Those who have become acquainted with Vadim Kostrov’s evolving slow cinema and vérité styles across the last six months will find comforting company with familiar and new faces that make up the filmmaker’s world as Nizhny Tagil sheds a coat of beating orange for stark white. While stillness, isolation, and allusions to Russian state surveillance come with the snow, Kostrov’s friends and protagonists persevere in the zones of warmth and performance that they seek for themselves.

Alongside WINTER, the third in Kostrov’s still-to-be completed seasons cycle, Spectacle will screen the two follow-ups to the summer-set NARODNAYA with the equally loud and spirited AFTER NARODNAYA and COMET. Kostrov’s lesser known ADA AND MAXIM, a disarming and sincere hometown Satanist romance, will also receive much deserved attention.

In keeping with each iteration of this series, Kostrov will generously grace the theater (extra cozy now that our steam heating is kicking in) with conversation and insight during remote Q&As throughout December.

FILM PROGRAM

Kostrov’s third of four autobiographical seasons films undergoes a number of dramatic developments from its predecessors, both in the harsh change in tone of the Ural landscape and the upscale from miniDV to high resolution widescreen. The young Vadim, now a teenager, shelters from the winter in a repetitive interior purgatory of online Counter-Strike matches. When he does leave his home, he wanders a blanketed alien world, tagging graffiti where he can to plant seeds of color on the blank canvas that surrounds him.

BIOS

Vadim Kostrov shot his first feature-length documentary film Cherdak-Underground on VHS, telling the story of the Russian underground of the 1980s and 1990s. Returning regularly to the Urals, Vadim created Summer (2020), Winter (2021), and the documentary trilogy Narodnaya. Summer received a special jury mention at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021, while his earlier work Orpheus (2019) was presented in the competition at FIDMarseille then the film was shown At RIDM (Montreal), Mar Del Plata international film festival and won Best Film at Black Canvas (Mexico City). In October 2021 the trilogy Narodanya (Narodnaya, After Narodnaya, Comet) premiered at Heart Beat Section at the 19th edition of Doclisboa as well as Winter which was shown in the International competition there. In March 2022 retrospective of Vadim’s films took place at FICUNAM (Mexico City) with Vadim Kostrov presenting 7 titles in person(Orpheus, Summer, Winter, Loft-Underground, Narodnaya, After Narodnaya, Comet) resulting in18 screenings, and 3 films (Orpheus, Summer, Winter) were presented online on MUBI.