Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.
Cast
Tom Hollander
Kazimir Malevich (voice)
Matthew Macfadyen
Vladimir Lenin (voice)
Eleanor Tomlinson
Lyubov Popova (voice)
James Fleet
Wassily Kandinsky (voice)
Daisy Bevan
Varvara Stepanova (voice)
Sean Cronin
Sergeant Berman
Alex Enmarch
Nikolay Punin
Ernest Gromov
Officer Vorontsov
Tom Rose
Gustav Klutsis - Prisoner
Andrei Konchalovsky
Self
Mikhail Piotrovsky
Self
Zelfira Tregulova
Self
