Socrates of Kamchatka (2017)

Socrates died in Russia. He was a horse. He died for love. 'Socrates of Kamchatka' blends documentary and fiction to tell a story about a 'new Russian' entrepreneur - Anfisa, and her horse - Socrates, who was murdered to punish Anfisa for her economic success. From the documentary thread of the movie, we learn about Anfisa's life: happy Soviet childhood during 1980s; stealing meat in undergarments in 1990s; running in excruciating sled dog race during Putin's nationalism of 2000s. From the fictional thread - Socrates' voice over narration - we learn a somewhat different perspective of humans' plight of the past 30 years. Humorous and sad, mixing folk lyricism and official government verbiage, opinion and fact, truth and fiction, Socrates' narration echoes unstable Russian mainstream discourse.