Catalogue > At random

Chechnya, Grozny, spring 2021. The city's landscapes are filled with portraits of Putin, Kadyrov Senior, and Kadyrov Junior. They watch me from every corner, infiltrating my thoughts. It’s almost impossible to believe and accept. I perceive the totalitarianism these portraits convey, viewing them intentionally through a distorted lens. I film the streets of my hometown, Grozny, from behind the tinted windows of a car, knowing that such actions put me at risk of persecution. I document a moment when fascism begins to take root in Russia—a time when, after 30 years of the Chechen people's struggle for independence, the focus shifts to indoctrinating children. In 2022, over 12,000 soldiers from Kadyrov's army are sent to war in Ukraine.

Vladlena Sandu was born in Crimea, Ukraine (USSR), in 1982 and grew up in Grozny, Chechnya, during four years of war. She graduated from VGIK in 2016 with a degree in film directing. In 2019, she completed a postgraduate degree in Art at VGIK in Aesthetics, publishing several academic articles. In 2019 graduated Boris Yukhananov's Studio for theater direction. Her works have been presented at international festivals such as the Rotterdam Film Festival, Berlinale, DocLisboa, GoEast, Movies That Matter, ZagrebDox, Geneva International Film Festival, DOK Leipzig, and others, earning international awards. At the start of the Russian war against Ukraine in March 2022, Sandu fled Russia and is now based in Amsterdam. There, she completed No Nation Without Culture about regime in Chechnya, which won Best Short Film at GoEast IFF 2023. In 2023, she also directed the autobiographical performance The Rainbow Cinema and received the Best Amsterdam Fringe 2023 Award.