The film will be shown in the presence of the co-author and producer Alexander Smoljansky, who will also be available for discussion with the public.

The documentary "In search of a lost paradise" (original with subtitles, directed by Eugene Tsymbal) is the first part of a two-part project about the famous "Lianozovo group" of Soviet underground artists and their leading figures, Valentina Kropivnitskaya and Oscar Rabin. The film tells the story of the Russian avant-garde movement starting in the 1950s and about the beginnings of the Russian non-conformist art scene.

The legendary "bulldozer exhibition" was an unofficial art exhibition by Oscar Rabin and further dissidents, which was terminated by the Moscow police with the aid of bulldozers. Valentina Kropivnitskaya and her husband Oscar Rabin were forced to leave the Soviet Union due to their participation in the "bulldozer exhibition" among other things. Oscar Rabin was even deprived of his Russian citizenship. They emigrated to Paris, where they set up a new existence as artists.

Among other things, the film is about love and the ability to stand up for one's own artistic and human principles in a suppressive state.

"In search of a lost paradise" won the NIKA Academy Award, the most prestigious Russian film award, as best documentary in 2016. The film also received further international awards at film festivals in Berlin, Moscow, Great Britain, India and Australia.

Further information:
Department of Eastern Europe of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich
Graduate school for East- and South-East European studies
MIR e. V.
Blog OstBib