Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017: #31. Aleksey German Jr.’s Dovlatov

Dovlatov

Director: Aleksey German Jr.
Writer: Aleksey German Jr., Katherine Dovlatov

Since helping to complete his father’s posthumous opus Hard to Be a God, Russian director Aleksey German Jr. revealed his third feature, Under Electric Clouds in competition at Berlin in 2015 (where it won an award for cinematography). He received funding from Eurimages to support his latest project, Dovlatov, a film which explores four days in the life of cult Russian author Sergei Dovlatov in 1971, Leningrad. Collaborating with the author’s daughter Katherine, German is interested in capturing the particular scene of early 70s Leningrad.

Cast: Milan Maric, Danila Kozlovsky, Elena Lyadova, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Anton Shagin

Production Co./Producer(s): SAGa, Metra Films.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available.

Release Date: In May of 2015, German was still finishing up the script, while reports of filming preparation were reported from St. Petersburg in October, which officially began production in February 2016, with the project participating as a work-in-progress for the recent Les Arc European Film Festival in December, 2016. A return to Berlin would seem likely, but considering Dovlatov may not be ready in time, German could either break into Cannes (maybe Un Certain Regard), or return to Venice, where two of his films have premiered (including 2008’s Paper Soldier, which took home the Silver Lion).

[related]Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017[/related]