Tripping with Zhirinovsky + The Patriot – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Tripping with Zhirinovsky

• Two years after Serbian Epics, with Radovan Karadžić as the main character, Paweł Pawlikowski again portrays an extremely controversial politician. This time it’s the Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Tripping with Zhirinovsky evokes associations with Marek Piwowski’s legendary film The Cruise for a reason. We see Zhirinovsky on a cruise ship on the Volga surrounded by some two hundred supporters, and also in New York, where he arouses considerable media interest. At the editing stage, Pawlikowski decided to keep primarily those scenes that make the viewer laugh, thus making it clear that the film’s atmosphere is that of an absurd comedy. However, this leaves the viewer with a nagging question: To what extent are Zhirinovsky and similar politicians really dangerous? This question sounds even more serious today, nearly a quarter of a century later.
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The Patriot

directed by Katia Fiedułowa, Germany 2018, 35'

• Vasily Vlasov – Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s personal assistant and protégé – has already had a dizzying political career at the age of 21. He is the youngest Duma deputy in history and heads the youth wing of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which acts as the “official opposition” in Putin’s authoritarian state. Confident and outspoken, he can explain away his boss’s most embarrassing antics without batting an eye. And yet he allowed himself to be approached by Katya Fedulova, who, using him as an example, exposes the void that fills the corridors of power in today’s Russia.

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