St. Petersburg 1917. The frontline of the global war is coming closer everyday; people are hungry, wor-ried, angry. In February the tsar is overthrown. Many artists are euphoric: Revolution! Freedom, finally? No. Starting in October, the Bolsheviks rule by themselves. What were poets, thinkers, and avant-gardists like Maxim Gorky and Kazimir Malevich doing during this drastic change of power? In the film, five of them alight from the director’s piles of books as animated cut-out figures. With their own recorded words in their mouths, they participate in salons, committees, and street riots.

Cast

Hanns Zischler

Alexander Benois (voice)

Martin Schneider

Maxim Gorki (voice)

Inka Friedrich

Dokumentarfilmerin (voice)

Claudia Michelsen

Sinaida Hippius (voice)

Maximilian Bauer

Wladimir Majakowski (voice)