The newspaper

Short, playful, 2023
Based on Yukio Mishima’s story of the same name, the short film "The newspaper" addresses the problem of the stratification of Russian society, the "rich" ignoring the problems of the "poor," and the dictates of cynicism over complicity. Filmed in a detached, aesthetic manner, the film tells the story of a young woman immersed in anxiety over the birth of her servant’s child. The baby, wrapped in newspaper, becomes a haunting nightmare that triggers a process of reflection. Associations with traditional Japanese theater arise from the fact that the apartment of the protagonist and her husband is at once like a stage on which the drama of birth unfolds and what happens afterwards. At the climax of the film, I inserted an episode of my family’s home video as a hint that every human life from birth is simply a series of moments following one another.

Director: Andrei Stadnikov

Camera operator: Danila Goryunkov

Set designer: Maria Ovchinnikova

Composer: Dmitry Vlasik




Poster