Bolshoi Babylon EN
Bolshoi Babylon
Academy-Award winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugarman and Man on Wire) and director Nick Read take the viewer on an exclusive behind the scenes trip behind the curtains of Russia’s most famed and notorious ballet company. Once a palace of high culture and one of Russia’s most shining national treasures the Bolshoi has become notorious for the stories of backstabbing and intrigue that have reached a new level after the sulfuric acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin by one of the company’s dancers.
As the company plans its 2013-2014 season and attempts to leave the recent scandals behind them the viewer gets unprecedented access to this cultural institution and a glimpse into “Black Swan in real life” – guided by an acclaimed team of documentary filmmakers.
Title: Bolshoi Babylon
Director: Nick Read
Country: UK
Running time: 86 min
Year: 2015
Featuring: Anastatia Meskova, Ludmilla Semenyaka, Sergei Filin
“A shocking tale of dysfunction, showing that the discipline needed for classical music creates violence and pain as a hidden byproduct, like nuclear waste.”
“These twin tracts of darkness and light, the sordid and the sublime, quite effectively submerge the viewer into a closed world.”
“What emerges is a toxic fairytale about the beauty of artistic endeavour and the beastly behaviour that sometimes accompanies it.”