Twenty Warless Days

Alexei German was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, USSR, in 1938. Son of the famous Russian writer Yuri German, he is known for his controversial and critical films, mostly shot in black and white. He graduated at the Leningrad Theatre University in 1960 and worked as a stage director at the Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theatre before started studying film direction with Grigory Kozintsev at the Lenfilm studio, where he also worked as an assistant director. His debut feature, The Seventh Satellite (1967, co-directed with Grigory Aronov), was set in the decisive historical years of 1918 and 1919. His first solo-directed feature, Being Proven on the Roads, was shot in 1971, but only released in 1986. The film was banned from the Soviet Union and caused the director of Lenfilm Studio’s resignation. Based on a true incident, it questioned some wartime myths and it was considered antipatriotic for depicting the Red Army, as well as the treatment given to prisoners-of-war during the II World War. “The film is about Stalin`s methods of treating people. A work about morals and immorality”, tells German. Over the course of his career, many of his projects have suffered an official government’s opposition. After Being Proven on the Roads, he shot Twenty Warless Days (1976), followed by My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1986), based on his father’s book, Lapshin (1937). Awarded at the Locarno Film Festival and voted by Russian critics one of the ten best soviet films of all time, the film was filed for three years before its release. His fifth feature, Khurstalyov, My Car! (1997), tells about the traumatic war episode known as the "Affair of the Doctors": in the 1950’s, Stalin`s regime spread the idea that "doctors" of the Soviet Jewish elite were plotting the death of the dictator, using this story as a justification for anti-Semitic persecution. His son, Aleksei German Jr., followed his father’s career and is known by features such as Paper Soldier (2008), awarded at the Venice Film Festival. It’s an honor for the 35th Mostra to fully present German’s five features representing a 30-year-work, and also to exhibit Alexander Pozdnyakov’s documentary German: from the Other Side of the Camera (2008) on the thoughts and work of the great and restless filmmaker.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA