PUSHKIN IS OUR EVERYTHING

In PUSHKIN IS OUR EVERYTHING, filmmaker Michael Beckelhimer goes on a journey through Russia to learn how Russia’s most famous 19th-century poet became contemporary Russia’s supreme national icon – and how his star rose higher and higher at every tumultuous point in Russian history. How can Russia’s national poet help Russia today?  In the film we meet Russians who have turned to Pushkin to get them through difficult times: a sculptor, a poet, a priest, a theater group – and a St. Petersburg advertising executive who employs Pushkin in a campaign against racism.  

As filmmaker Beckelhimer says, “When I first set out to make a film about the inspiring relationship Russians have with their literature, I went to Russia to find stories about my favorite writers: Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, and Gogol. I avoided Pushkin; he seemed like a well-worn subject. But every interview about literature turned to Pushkin. I began to wonder: Why is Pushkin central to every conversation? How is it possible that everyone reveres him? How did he become everything? He turned out to be the lens through which I could show the scope of Russian history, politics, religion and culture – past and present.”

Winner of the 2015 Faces of Russia award for the film that “displays the best cinematic reflection of modern Russians, the most innovative presentation of contemporary Russian life to Americans, and the most original personal vision of modern society” at the 2015 8th Annual Russian Documentary Film Festival.

PUSHKIN IS OUR EVERYTHING is online now at:
http://www.pushkinfilm.com/