Look Again. Jan 19 – 29, 2012 Park City, Utah

Masha Drokova is a rising star in Russia’s popular nationalistic youth movement, Nashi. A smart, ambitious teenager who—literally—embraced Vladimir Putin and his promise of a greater Russia, her dedication as an organizer is rewarded with a university scholarship, an apartment, and a job as a spokesperson. But her bright political future falters when she befriends a group of liberal journalists who are critical of the government, including blogger Oleg Kashin, who calls Nashi a “group of hooligans,” and she’s forced to confront the group’s dirty—even violent—tactics.

In her first feature, Danish filmmaker Lise Birk Pedersen offers a chilling view of modern Russia, its fragile—perhaps illusory—democracy, and Nashi’s alarmingly fascist tendencies (mass rallies, book burnings, “patriotic education,” and vilification of opponents). But, distinguished by an artful, cinematic aesthetic and astonishing intimacy, the film’s emotional weight lies in the evolution of Masha’s political consciousness. Putin's Kiss reminds us that all politics are deeply personal.

Award Winner
World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Award - J.N.

Danish native Lise Birk Pedersen is a graduate of the National Film School of Denmark. Her 2003 debut project, the documentary short Margarita, studies the complex mind of a Russian teenager immigrating to Denmark. Pedersen went on to make several other short documentaries and television programs. In 2011 she released two films from Russia: Nastya in Love, a teenage love story set in a transit home in Saint Petersburg, and Putin's Kiss, which is her first feature-length documentary.