Sunday Screening – Durakovo: Village of Fools

In 1991, it was the words “freedom” and “democracy” that excited the Russian imagination. People believed in these ideas and wanted to see them realised.

Yet nineteen years later, where is Russia now?

The film starts in the village  of Durakovo, (150 km from Moscow), which is part of a project for the rebirth of Russia, where a patriot and a good Christian Mikhail Morozov rescues  lost souls and moulds   them into the righteous  citizens of a new Russia. The whole spectrum of state power – political, spiritual and administrative – gathers in these semi-private meetings with Morozov in the Village of Fools to discuss the future of Russia.

The Russian Orthodox Church, senior representatives of the Russian parliament and leading members of the security service form Morozov’s circle of friends. 

Through the metaphor of Durakovo village, the film depicts  the Russian perception of democracy – the result of  the country’s short and painful experience of reform in the ‘90s – and  underlines the problem  of “adapting the democratisation process to Russia’s historical and cultural traditions.”  It reflects the tradition of an “iron hand “ and Russia’s nostalgia for lost Empire. 

Directed by Nino Kirtadze
90 mins
2008

Best director award at Sundance film festival 2008

Best documentary of the year, France, 2009