IN FULL The Roots of Russia’s Invasion COLOR

Estonian director Marianna Kaat has finished her new documentary, The Last Relic, an intense examination of why and how Russia went to war.

By Filipp Kruusvall Photo by Erlend Štaub

Filmed over four years in the pro vincial city of Yekaterinburg, The Last Relic is a stark cine matic portrait of the absurdity of life in Russia, where the bulk of the population dreams of restoring imperial glory and a handful of open-minded people desperately resist Putin’s relentless march towards a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

You have a lot of experience in making documentaries in Russia. How has film makers’ access to Russia changed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine?

Russia has always been a fertile ground for making documentaries. It’s a country that is full of powerful characters and ominous po litical events. Although freedom of action for filmmakers has always been restricted, the start of the war in Ukraine was a turning point – from then on, neither Russian nor foreign filmmakers could make independent documentaries in Russia or carry out investigative journalism. The Wall Street Journal’s reporter Evan Gershkovich’s recent arrest on spying charges in Yekaterinburg really underlined that: independent coverage from Russia is now a thing of the past.

It’s hard to get reliable information about what is happening inside Russia now, and it gets harder the further you get away from Moscow. My new documentary, The Last Relic, could be one of the last real takes from the inside of Russia until there is a fundamental change in the way the country is governed.

Filmed in the provincial city of Yekaterinburg, The Last Relic is a stark cinematic portrait of the absurdity of life in Russia.

What are you focusing on in The Last Relic?

It’s about the confrontation between a small group of opposition activists and the Putin regime. It takes place in the fourth-largest city in Russia, one of its leading cultural and industrial centers, Yekaterinburg. There is Igor, a 21-year-old student who tries to unite the scattered opposition. Through his journey, we meet a cast of characters who each have their own unique perspectives on the future of Russia. From retired schoolteacher Galina to unemployed Rafael, who dreams of an immediate revolution, to a former priest, Victor, who finds himself in court after attending an opposition rally. Each represents a different facet of Russian society.

We’re showing the process of the gradual disappearance of democratic freedoms in Russian society, the destruction of the last remnants of pluralism. We see the church processions, Cossack parades, cadet training sessions, all of them labeled with the name of the last Russian Tsar, who was murdered in Yekaterinburg, and the way all of that was gradually developed into an exaltation of Putin and his authoritarian regime.

Why did you choose Yekaterinburg, which is situated 1800 kilometers from Moscow, as the setting for your story?

I saw that Yekaterinburg works as a metaphor for the whole country, it allowed me to paint a picture of the whole of Putin’s Russia.