Double Portrait. Autocrat and leader

Evgeniy Popov
Russia
2018

26 min

Russian

Artdoc rating

This film is based on the unusual fate of an unusual picture, a double portrait of two prominent historical figures. On one side of it, in 1896, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was depicted in a palace interior. And on the other hand, almost three decades later, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in full growth against the backdrop of the Peter and Paul Fortress. For a long time, this canvas in a gilded frame was kept in the assembly hall of the St. Petersburg secondary school on the Fontanka, with the Leninist side facing the viewer. The side of Nicholas II, on the contrary, was hidden under a layer of paint for 90 years. Only in 2013, the year of the centenary of the Romanov dynasty, the restorers almost accidentally discovered the image hidden from the audience. The incredible combination of two warring rulers on both sides of the same canvas turned out to be a real sensation. It is no coincidence that the portrait became the central exhibit at the exhibition dedicated to the Russian Revolution in the Hermitage in 2017. However, the plot of the film is not limited to one sensation. The viewer will have to make a lot of amazing discoveries both in the history of writing an unusual picture, and in the fate of two almost forgotten Russian artists.

Authors

Evgeniy Popov

Film crew

Director: Evgeny Popov
Screen writer: Evgeny Popov
Operator: Artem Grafchikov
Producer: Sergey Pochin
Sound producer: Danil Zosin

MOVIE ABOUT

Theme: History, Museums, Art and culture, Painting
Country: Russia
Film studio: ООО «ПМГ»
Period of action: 2018
Languages: Russian