Russian Film Week: Anatoly Vasiliev – 20 years in theatre and a kick up the ass!

An exclusive talk from leading Russian theatre director and experimentalist. After a lifetime of creating cutting-edge laboratory-based theatre, Vasiliev has left Russia and turned to film. His film «Asino», will be shown during During the evening’s discussion, Vasiliev will be in conversation with his long-term translator Natalia Isaeva, about his life in theatre, leaving Russia, and his new film, dedicated to the humble donkey.

Shot in Italy, Asino teeters between reality and allegory. The chapter titles (Bacchus, Medea, etc.) and quotes from Apuleius, Pirandello and Aeschylus provide context. One part of the film documents donkey worship in Alba, Italy, where donkey races are held during the Palio. In Asino, donkeys are shown as simultaneously domesticated animals, and divine, mythological creatures.

Vasiliev says of the film: ‘it is in praise of the donkey. The content is simple: it is a hymn to that humble and arrogant creature.’

Asino is a Swiss production (2017) made in Italy using documentary material. It was selected for the official program “Signatures” at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2018.