Feature Documentary/2022/Russia/68min/Directed by Angie Vinchito

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

Edited from videos posted online by Russian teenagers, Manifesto presents an increasingly troubling image of the lives of these young people. 

Shifting from anxieties about war to school shooters, violent teachers, and misogynistic beliefs (in one scene students are told a woman must have sex with her husband when he wants), to the policing of young people who protest. 

From innocuous and normal beginnings, this collective citizen’s diary ratches up the sense of an environment off-balance to a point where it’s difficult to believe what we are actually viewing.

Seen together, this found footage offers a disturbing and utterly gripping portrait of contemporary Russia and the young people that inhabit it.

A unique contemporary documentary work of special status.

Winner Envision Competition at IDFA 2022 Best Film