Immortal

This essay documentary, set in a far northern industrial town in Russia, reveals the mechanisms that entice human beings to voluntarily become a resource of the state. Can people ever be free in an imperialist society, where intricate and obscure structures take control of their minds from an early age?
The film looks at the making of a Russian citizen from a fresh angle. The director’s subtle but demanding look reveals “the system” at work in the most benign-looking situations, in all aspects of the everyday. What happens to people’s free will and self-determination under such conditions? The film is a Nietzschean treat, asking the core existential question: is a human being ever truly free?
Karlovy Vary FF, Documentary Competition Grand Prix 2019.

Introduction by Riho Västrik