We Are Russia

Milena and Kolya grew up in the shadow of Vladimir Putin. Following Alexei Navalny, the main opponent to the Kremlin’s master, they get involved in political agitprop in Moscow, defying the repression of the regime. Camera in hand, Alexandra Dalsbaek followed these young militants up until the Presidential election of 2018. Her gaze moving, a little concerned, Milena, aged around twenty, holds a poster declaring: “Sell your villas and build roads”. In front of the grilles of the imposing building that is home to the government of the Federation of Russia—then led by Dmitri Medvedev—her associate Kolya will barely have time to show his before the security service interrupts this agitprop. Also in front is the camera of Alexandra Dalsbaek, carried along with these very young militants who are trying—following Alexeï Navalny, the main opponent of the master of the Kremlin—to shake up the general apathy caused by the reign of Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, during the months preceding the Presidential election of 2018, the filmmaker chronicles their actions, their attempts to talk with their elders, but also the police and administrative repression that they suffer. We Are Russia uses direct cinema to give a face to this committed Russian youth, who intends, with joy and determination, to recreate a public space in a country terrorised by twenty years of authoritarianism.