25. September 2015

Yury Bykov in Focus

Yury Bykov

Director, screenwriter, composer, cutter and actor

Yury Bykov was born in 1981 in Novomichurinsk – a four hours' drive south-east of Moscow. He grew up in a typical working-class environment. Later, he moved to Moscow, where he studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. The 34-year-old filmmaker is an all-rounder: He writes screenplays, directs, composes music for his films himself, stands as an actor in front of the camera and also works on the editing table. So far, he realized three full length feature films: To Live!, The Major and The Fool. All of them happen in modern Russia. Corruption, greed and the exploitation of power are on the agenda.

Bykov himself is convinced that these subjects are not typically Russian ones. Everywhere where authorities have power over others, similar problems can be found, says Bykov. His protagonists are average citizens. In one of his movies, a kind-hearted plumber is struggling with the competent authorities and in another, a police officer uses his high position in order to avoid being responsible for a fatal traffic accident.

Yury Bykov looks into the souls of people and exposes all their human reasons and abysses. He shows, on screen, those who serve the wheels of bureaucracy and corruption, and those who are fighting them. In Russia, Bykov is very well-known; internationally, he also manages to distinguish himself again and again: in Cannes, Locarno and Shanghai, his films have been praised by film reviewers. In Austria, none of Bykov’s movies have been shown until now. LET'S CEE brings the filmmaker to Vienna and devotes a retrospective to his work.

Films by Yury Bykov at the LET'S CEE Film Festival - all dates & tickets:
www.letsceefilmfestival.com/programme-overview-2015/category/yury-bykov-fokus.html