The film shows the collapse of the Soviet industrialisation dream in today's Russia. The name of the film “Autumn on Shakespeare street” is a reference to a famous Soviet drama from 1956 “Spring on Zarechnaya Street” (dir. Marlen Khutsiev). Khutsiev's film acts as an ode to the“industrialisation dream”: the factory on Zarechnaya street is depicted in all its glory. “Autumn onShakespeare street” shows what happened to that dream in the reality of modern Russia — the factory is ruined and not working, the workers earn money by selling copper cables found (some might say stolen) from the factory premises, the lack of social and environmental care are striking.The street itself is soon would be demolished to make space for the new developments.Although the story is set in Russia, the issues that are addressed in the film are common in many other countries, as workers' communities all over the world are dependant on their factories and regard them not only as a source of income, but also as a source of a lifestyle.
I first saw Shakespeare street in 2015, when I was in Nizhny Novgorod for the research residency in the Centre for Contemporary Art. The residency was dedicated to the exploration of city through walking, and this is when I discovered Shakespeare street for myself. During one of our walks we saw a small back street near Oka river. There were some industrial buildings, lots of homeless dogs, and an enterprise called The Globe. Later on, when discovered some residential buildings as well. The buildings were built for the workers of leather factory “Kozhevnik” situated nearby. In its best years “Kozhevnik” was considered to be one of the best leather manufacturing factories in the USSR. However, the best years are over, the factory is no longer producing goods, but rents its premises to the local companies. The inhabitants of the street struggle to find their place in the “new, brave world”


My goal was to create a film that would challenge the conventional juxtaposition of the“authenticity” of documentary and experimentation of the artists’ moving image. I wanted to create a film, that uses poetic and intimate visual language, but speaks about social issues, that acts both as an observational documentary and as an existential essay about living conditions in todays Russia.

There is no author's voice-over in the film, the story develops through interviews with local residents of the street. In the key moments the interviews are built into a choir, where individual voices sometimes clash with each other, sometimes unite in harmony.There are two main narrative lines in the film, cross-cut into each other. The first narrative tells a story of the street through the voices/ interviews of the residents. The second narrative is formed by Shakespeare verses. The sonnet #73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”) plays a key role in the film, acting as a joint for two narratives. In this sonnet Shakespeare compares the autumn season with his approaching death. The approaching death of Shakespeare street(according to the new development plan of the city the street will be soon demolished) echoes the approaching death of the protagonist in the sonnet.Throughout the film, the camera movements are static and slow. The film opens with a scene where one of the locals sings a song about a bird that flew over the whole country and saw nothing but “shabby houses and sorrowful eyes”. Next we are cut into picturesque Russian landscape. Camera moves slowly, revealing details of the of the landscapes — autumn leaves, grass, branches, until it reaches the dead bird stuck between the branches. We see another dead bird later on in the film, when local residents tell how polluted became the Oka during last 10-20years. They use to swim and sunbath here before, but now "you can’t even get in”.

Structure
The film is divided into six chapters. The first chapter (What Is The City But The People) introduces us to this place. We meet the residents and learn some facts about the street.The name of the second chapter (How The Copper Was Tempered) is a paraphrase of the famousRussian socialist realist novel “How the steel was tempered. The chapter introduces the viewer to the topic of the film — the collapse of Soviet industrialisation dream. The factory, that was once a flagship of the industry is not working anymore, and former workers are burning copper cables found nearby in order to sell them to the recyclers and to earn money for the food.The third chapter “The Oka” tells us about environmental problems of the street.In the fourth chapter we are visiting “The Globe”, one of the enterprises located on theShakespeare street.The fifth chapter is dedicated to the history of the leather factory “Kozhevnik”.The final sixth chapter gives us a forecast for the future — according to the new city plan the street will soon be demolished to make space for the future developments.
Directed, edited and produced by Natalja Vikulina
Sound by Daniils Beilins (Daniel Beilin) and Patrick Skabardis
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