Few world leaders attract as much attention as Russian President Vladimir Putin. With this attention comes criticism, yet ordinary Russian citizens do not usually speak out against the leader. The recent invasion of Ukraine has made speaking out against the leader even harder, as newly passed censorship laws have been passed to curb sentiments against the country. Many have fled the country. Those that have stayed have a choice: do they stay silent or speak out, putting their very lives on the line?
EPF Media’s Inside Russia: Traitors and Heroes details an incredible year in the lives of various Russian citizens dealing with Putin’s authoritarian regime, the invasion of Ukraine, and much more. Anti-war demonstrations around the country are met with arrests and contempt. We see local politician Nina Belyaeva condemn the war publicly. In one of the more jarring segments of the film, Belyaeva, essentially risking her own life, films herself accusing the Russian Army and Putin of war crimes during a local council meeting. She soon goes viral, but at great personal cost. We watch as Belyaeva must choose between facing a conviction or flee Russia.
We also go to Ekaterinburg, a Ural city where another protest occurs. Various graffiti artists are shown mocking the pro-war stance of the country. One of these artists is soon arrested. The viewer then must reckon with whether these artists feel their actions were worth it, as one of their colleagues faces great adversity (and possibly exile or death). In the country’s capital an actor mourns her brother who died fighting for the Russian Armed Forces. The family is split as to whether he died a hero or not, and they also dive into the conflict itself and its impact.
Filmmakers Paul Mitchell and Anastasia Popova display people caught in the crossfire of one of modern society’s most troubling predicaments. The invasion of Ukraine is given special attention, but one thing viewers will not be able to forget is the issue of free speech at hand. Mitchell and Popova, who are both Russian, put not only the subjects of the film but themselves at risk by showing these various storylines. You’re left to wonder: do these filmmakers know they’ve essentially put a bounty on their heads? Is putting their lives on the line worth it so the rest of the world knows what is happening in Russia? These questions will linger on the viewer’s mind long after they view the film.
The film raises serious ethical questions and may even have viewers putting themselves into the positions of the people involved. Would they put their life on the line to speak out? Would they flee the country? The film may work for people who wish to engage in such discussions of war, censorship, propaganda, and much more. It would also work well in a series showcasing films about Russia (Mitchell’s other films, including Putin: A Russian Spy Story and Russia’s Open Book: Writing in the Age of Putin could also work). Students of modern history may also benefit from watching the film. The film is essential viewing for anyone who wants a deep dive into one of our modern day’s most troubling events. It would be essential viewing for anyone, as we often take our freedoms of speech and expression for granted in this day and age. Professors of modern history and political science would benefit from showing this film to their students.
For years, it has been dangerous for ordinary Russians to voice dissent against Putin’s regime for years. New censorship laws, introduced since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have made it tougher. Hundreds of thousands have fled Russia and those who remain have to choose: stay silent, or support the war.
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THE FILMMAKERS
Paul Mitchell – Co-Director
Paul Mitchell began his career at ABC News in Moscow during the collapse of Communism. A fluent Russian speaker, he was working as a local-hire editor/sound-recordist when Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov was released from detention – and ended up interviewing the great man and cutting a package for the US evening news. He came to international attention with “The Death of Yugoslavia’ (BBC 1995) rated by the British Film Institute as one of the 100 greatest British television programs of any genre. As both a director and a showrunner, he has made award-winning series on subjects as diverse as Scottish Independence Yes/No: Inside the IndyRef (BBC 2019), perestroika under Gorbachev The Second Russian Revolution (BBC 1990), the Obama presidency Inside Obama’s White House (BBC 2016), pop culture in the Global South Alternative Rock and Roll Years (Discovery 2003), US politics, The Clintons: A Marriage of Power (C4 1998), the Middle East Channel’s’ The Iraq War (BBC/National Geographic 2012). Russia has remained a speciality, with definitive Putin series on both BBC - Putin: Russia & the West (2012) and Channel 4 – Putin: A Russian Spy Story (C4 2020) and one of the first investigations into the now- infamous Wagner Group Haftar’s Russian Mercenaries (BBC, 2021). He has also done frontline war reporting from Chechnya for PBS Wide Angle: Greetings from Grozny. (Edward R Murrow Award, FIPA 2003 Prix de Jury de 15 Chicago International Television Awards and the Rory Peck winning Inside Chechnya (BBC 1999). Among his many awards are the Primetime EMMY, the Peabody, the du-Pont Columbia Gold Baton, the BAFTA, the Grierson.
Anastasiya Popova – Co-Director
Anastasiya Popova was born in Norilsk is a city located beyond the Arctic Circle in Siberia.
After moving to Moscow, she graduated from the State Institute of Television and Radio with a degree in Directing. Anastasiya has directed more than 20 full-feature documentaries, most of them about art, culture, history and nature. Many of her films broke box office records and won Russian national awards.
Mikhail Kozyrev – Producer
Mikhail Kozyrev was born in Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains, Russia in 1967. He graduated from Sverdlovsk State Medical University with a doctorate degree. Then Mikhail worked as a resident in the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. He hosted the radio show "Music of Bolsheviks Kids and Babushkas" at KSPC 88.7FM. Mikhail began his media career in Russia in 1994. He launched and handled programming for several national radio stations (Radio Maximum, Nashe Radio, Ultra FM). Mikhail also created a number of major music festivals including MaxiDrome and Nashestvie. Since 2010 Mikhail hosted and produced several shows on the Russian independent channel TV Rain. TV Rain was very critical of Putin, so it was shut down during the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He had to leave Russia. country. Like most independent journalists and artists, Mikhail was declared "a foreign agent," a label that is used to declare someone an enemy of the state. Now Mikhail continues to work at TV Rain which is now broadcasting from Amsterdam Netherlands. His family, wife Anastasia and their twin daughters, now live in the Netherlands. In the first days of war, they decided to make a documentary about what was going on in Russia. After contacting a few production companies in London Mikhail met Paul Mitchell who believed in the project and presented it to the BBC and Storyville.
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INSIDE RUSSIA
Catalog # EPF16052 ● ISBN: 978-1-933724-92-8 ● UPC: 6-82086-16052-8 ● NTSC
54 Minutes ● Copyright 2023 ● Russian, English Subtitles
Click here to buy DVD: $29.95
Click here to buy DVD w/ Public Performance Rights: $250
Click here to buy DSL and DVD w/ Public Performance Rights: $375
For purchase orders, to book screenings and for other inquiries, please contact:
Larry Rattner - larry@epfmedia.com