Moya Babusya Fani Kaplan
Ukraine
Synopsis
Director's Statement
Fanny Kaplan was the main villain of the Soviet mythology, who threatened the holiest of holies – the life of Vladimir Lenin. However, the documents from Kaplan’s trial, declassified after the collapse of the Soviet Union, give an impression of a falsified case, like the ones that would abound in Stalin’s times and which can still be seen today... So we wished to question her guilt and show Kaplan as a human being rather than the “enemy of the people”.
In her short life (just 28 years) Kaplan had lived through three revolutions and two wars. I believe that a story of a person, who found herself living in a whirlpool of drastic social transformations of her era, is frighteningly resonant with the situation we witness in the early 21st century, with its wars, hybrid conicts, “peacemaking missions” and insurrections...
Kaplan went blind due to physical and psychological traumas. The themes of blindness and regaining sight are important for the film. First of all, in the context of how people can “go blind” to the rise of totalitarianism – either through blind idealism or unquestioning conformism. Secondly, how people can be made blind towards history. The Orwellian phrase on how “the one who controls the present controls the past” still remains real and relevant.
Director's Biography
In 2013, she co-produced a romantic comedy “F63.9 Love Sickness”. She also co-wrote and co-directed this film with her husband, Dmitriy Tomashpolsky.
A black comedy "Laugh or die" was produced by Olena in 2016.
Selected filmography (as director):
2016 MY GRANDMOTHER FANNY KAPLAN
2013 F 63.9 LOVE SICKNESS
2008 MAYAKOVSKY. TWO DAYS
2006 KAZAROSA (MINI-SERIES)
2002 TOMORROW WILL BE TOMORROW
1998 TWO JULIAS ACTORS
1997 CRUEL FANTASY
Cast & Crew
Directed by: Olena Demyanenko
Written by: Dmytro Tomashpolskiy, Olena Demyanenko
Produced by: Olena Demyanenko
Cinematography: Oleksiy Moskalenko
Editing: Igor Rak
Production Design: Oleksandr Batenev, Sergey Brzhestovskiy
Costume Design: Nadiya Kudryavzeva
Make-Up & Hair: Vitaliy Skopelidis
Original Score: Tymur Polyanskyi
Sound Design: Artem Mostovoy
Animation: Oleksiy Moskalenko
Cast: Katerina Molchanova (Fanny Kaplan), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Dmitriy Ilyich Ulyanov), Ivan Brovin (Viktor Garskiy)
Nominations and Awards
- Feature Film Selection 2017