The Klassiki Podcast

• Julia Loktev on My Undesirable Friends: Part One – Last Air in Moscow

  14 years after her previous feature, Julia Loktev is back with a monumental new documentary project. My Undesirable Friends is her collective portrait of some of the last independent journalists working in Russia in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Part One, titled Last Air in Moscow, was shot entirely on iPhone during Loktev’s trips to the Russian capital. Over more than five immersive hours, we follow journalists from the TV channel Rain and other oppositional outlets as they struggle to keep pace with Russia’s descent into the abyss, from labelling journalists as “foreign agents” to outright assault and arrest. Host Sam Goff sat down with Julia to find out how the film evolved over time, the relationship between her work in fiction and documentary, and where she’s at with Part Two of the project, entitled Exile, which follows our journalist protagonists after they are forced to flee Russia. Last Air in Moscow is currently screening in select locations across the US. Find your nearest screening here. Get in touch: [email protected]. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

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• The Klassiki Kino Club: The Return of the Projectionist

  This week, we’re reopening the Klassiki Kino Club, our watch-along exploration of Klassiki’s ever-expanding catalogue. In the hot seat this time around is Ally Pitts, host of the long-running Russian and Soviet Movies Podcast and confirmed Eastern European film aficionado. Ally’s choice comes from Azerbaijan: Orkhan Aghazadeh’s 2024 documentary The Return of the Projectionist, a portrait of cinephilia and friendship across generations.  Ally and host Sam Goff get into Aghazadeh’s playful blend of observation and performance, the state of cinema in the post-Soviet space, and how to make a nostalgic film without being sentimental.   Watch along with us on Klassiki now! Subscribers will also find our exclusive video interview with Aghazadeh. Check out Ally’s podcast here. Get in touch: [email protected]. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

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• Horror behind the Iron Curtain

  As every film fan knows, October is horror season. And while eastern Europe these days is full of horror filmmakers who can mix it with the best of them, this wasn’t always the case: under communism, the genre often struggled to get past state censors. But the idea that there was no horror produced behind the Iron Curtain is a myth. There was in fact a rich tradition in the sixties and seventies, drawing on national folklore, literary sources, and the region’s traumatic recent history to chilling effect. On Klassiki, you can currently stream a Halloween double header of cult classic Soviet films. Viy, by Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, is famous among genre fans as the greatest of all Soviet horror titles, while Valeri Rubinchik’s The Savage Hunt of King Stakh is a criminally under-seen gothic gem from Belarus.  In the spirit of the season, this week Sam speaks with Miriam Balanescu, a film writer and critic with a special interest in all things ghoulish. They discussed the horror history of countries like Poland and Czechia, the political subtext of genre filmmaking under communism, and what ‘folk horror’ meant in the Soviet context.  Don’t miss our Halloween double header, now showing on Klassiki. Get in touch: [email protected]  Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

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• Mother Teresa and Persian poetry at the London Film Festival

  The 69th edition of the London Film Festival has just rolled through the capital’s cinemas, bringing a host of filmmaking talents in its wake. Sam headed down to the festival press circuit to speak to two directors in town with their latest films. First we hear from North Macedonia’s Teona Strugar Mitevska, who has been a shining light of Balkan filmmaking for over 20 years. Her latest film is perhaps her most ambitious yet: Mother, a punkish take on Mother Teresa starring Noomi Rapace, which had its premiere in Venice this summer. Then we catch up with acclaimed Iranian director Sharham Mokri, who travelled to neighbouring Tajikistan for his latest film, Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, which screened in competition in London. With the help of interpreter Iante Roach, Shahram and Sam discussed the deep links between Iranian and Tajik cinema – including how jumping between the two countries can help filmmakers from both to avoid growing censorship at home.  Read our interview with Teona on her previous film 21 Days Until the End of the World here. Read Tajik filmmaker Anisa Sabiri on the influence of Iranian cinema in Tajikistan here.  Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

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• The Strugatsky Brothers on screen

  Welcome back! It’s season five of the Klassiki podcast. We’ve got ten more great episodes lined up for you, featuring some exciting interviews, historical deep dives, and a Halloween special later this month. In the meantime, get in touch with us at [email protected].  We’re kicking things off with some science fiction. Boris and Arkady Strugatsky were brothers who dominated postwar Soviet sci-fi with their philosophical, subversive, and hugely popular novels and short stories. The Strugatskys also had a second life on screen, collaborating with a wide array of directors on adaptations of their work – most famously Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker. You can’t really understand eastern bloc sci-fi without the Strugatsky Brothers. But who were they, where did their remarkable visions come from, and why have their proven so appealing to so many filmmakers?  To answer these questions, host Sam Goff speaks with Marat Grinberg,​Professor of Russian and Humanities at Reed College, who’s written extensively on Soviet sci-fi and the Jewish experience under communism. They discuss the Strugatskys’ traumatic childhoods, the ways their work has been transformed by directors from the 60s to the Putin era, and how their Jewishness informed their work.  Subscribers can watch two Strugatsky adaptations on Klassiki now: Aleksandr Sokurov’s Days of Eclipse and Grigori Kromanov’s Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel.  Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

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