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Original name: Yumorist
English name: The Humorist
Year:2019
Run time: 101 Mins
Language: Russian
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Colour
Country: Russia, Latvia, Czechia
Director: Michael Idov
Producers: : ArtemVasilyev, AndreySaveliev, AijaBērziņa, AliseĢelze, ArtemioBenki
Cast: Aleksey Agranovich, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Alisa Khazanova, PavelIlyin, Artem Volobuev
Screenplay: Michael Idov
Cinematographer: Alexander Surkala
Editor: Michal Lánský
Sound Designer: Michal Deliopulos
Music Composers: Leonid Desyatnikov, Alexey Agranovich
Costume Designer: Ludmila Rybalko
Production Designer: Aivars Zukovskis
Production Company: Metrafilms
World Sales: M-appeal world sales
World Sales Phone: +49 30 61 50 75 05
World Sales Email: sales@m-appeal.com
Michael Idov was born in 1976 in Latvia, and moved to the U.S. in 1992. He is known as scriptwriter of KirilSebrennikov´s LETO, selected to Cannes Official Competition 2018. His debut novel Ground Upbecame a bestseller, with HBO optioning it for adaptation as a TV series. Idov’s Russian-language screenwriting debut, Soulless 2, became Russia’s highest-grossing feature of 2015. For TV, Idov created Londongrad, and The Optimists. He is currently developing Advanced Persistent Threat, an original US TV series for the TNT network.
In the midst of the collapsing USSR, the favourite stand-up comedian of the regime begins challenging censorship. In 1984 Soviet Union, Boris, a Russian-Jewish stand-up comedian, is tormented not only by external oppression and censorship but also by his own insecurities. Fame, combined with lack of personal freedom, is driving him crazy. Once the leaders who dictate what he can and can’t joke about summon him to their villa, the comedian snaps. Armed with the exotic American notion of “insult humour”, he takes his revenge. The film addresses the issue of preserving one's inner freedom and integrity under a totalitarian regime.
