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Born in the USSR: 21 Up
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Born in the USSR: 21 Up
IDFA 2018

Born in the USSR: 21 Up

Sergei Miroshnichenko
United Kingdom
2005
90 min
Festival history

“I will always be Russian,” says 21-year-old Andrei, who now lives in the United States. Like all the other subjects of this documentary series, he was born in the Soviet Union. Director Sergei Miroshnishenko made Age 7 in the USSR in 1990 and and followed it up seven years later with Born in the USSR: 14 Up, for which he won an Emmy Award.

Made in 2005 and likewise modeled on Michael Apted’s famous Up series, this third film also features the protagonists being interviewed about their lives. What are their thoughts about love, religion, starting a family, the country of their birth, the society in which they live and and their outlook for the future?

Their candid responses are cleverly intercut with the answers they gave seven and 14 years earlier when—behind the Iron Curtain—their world looked very different. Newly gained freedoms bring new opportunities, but just as many risks. Some of the subjects are dealing with their situation better than others. Although the lives and dreams of these twentysomethings have taken very different paths over the years, a sense of nostalgia permeates each of their stories.

Credits
Director
Executive producer
    Sarah Murch
    Sarah Murch
World Sales
    Studio Ostrov
    Studio Ostrov
Screening copy
    Studio Ostrov
    Studio Ostrov