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LIGHT FROM THE EAST - Directed by Amy Grappell US, 2008 (68 minutes, in English/Ukrainian/Russian, with English subtitles)
In 1991, a troupe of young American actors from La Mama Theater in NY travels to the USSR to participate in the first American/Ukrainian cultural exchange theater project in Soviet history. The play they are to perform is based on the life of Les Kurbas, a revolutionary theatre director who was murdered in one of Stalin's purges. Two weeks into their trip, Gorbachev is kidnapped, the Kremlin is overthrown by a military coup and the entire USSR is plunged into volatile uncertainty. As rehearsals progress, the play ironically begins to mirror action in the streets: Kurbas and his company struggled to make art during the revolution that ushered in communism, while the international troupe performs the life of Kurbas as communism collapses. Described as an "illuminating time-capsule documentary" (Variety), the film offers a timely philosophical inquiry into the meaning of
freedom and the transition from communism to democracy.
Contact: Amy Grappell