The Master of the Swamps
Germany, 2023, 5 minutes, Color, English, Russian; Turkish captioned, Turkish dubbed, English subtitled
Director: Sasha Svirsky
Screenplay: Sasha Svirsky
Music: Jessica Moss
Sound: Klim Mint
Producer: Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Mikhail Zygar, Nadezhda Svirskaia
Production: XZ Foundation
In high-contrast images reduced to black, white, and red and with expressive illustrations and computer-generated 3D sculptures, Sasha Svirsky formulates his outcry against the war in Ukraine, thus giving a voice to the many Russians who oppose it. He portrays Peter the Great, the first emperor of the Russian Empire, as a ruthless man of power who has lost all respect for human life.