An independent experimental exploration of color and light. The seventh work by Russian filmmaker, author, and mystic Roman Mikhaylov.
The Firebird is composed of two storylines. The first follows young actress Sasha (Aleksandra Kiseleva) on her Indian journey to find her mother, who left her and joined a sect. The second is a meditation on the kind of theater that requires performers’ total trust in the director’s ideas and the creative process. Director Roman Mikhaylov describes this type of theater as «sect-like“, including his own practice of working with actors at the Bolshoi Drama Theater and on the film set. Both are part of The Firebird’s non-linear narrative.
The story about the search for a mother who joined a sect in India—which turns out to be a metaphysical journey to a different reality—invites us to look at the phenomenon of sects from an unbiased point of view. The film’s characters reflect on whether one should indeed wake those people whose reality is nightmarish from their comforting collective dream. Another theme raised by the story of the woman who disappeared in India is our fear of the unknown and the way it can distort our reality.
Mikhaylov’s film follows a dream logic, where the real and the imaginary gradually merge and are impossible to tell apart. Together with cinematographer Aleksey Rodionov he marks the places where the two worlds connect with flashes of light, spots of color, and smoke.
The Firebird
Director: Roman Mikhaylov
Russia, India, 2024. 90 min.
16+