“Russia today” is a political documentary essay about Russia, filmed in the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. Runners, numbers, applause. Fishers, horses, plows. Aggression, migration, surveillance, love. 2 spiders, 1 ring of power. Interweaving motifs gathered on their journey through the region, the German filmmaker and her Russian sound recordist assemble a metaphorical mosaic of reflections on Russia’s current status quo. Fragments of conversations create a temporary space for personal encounters. The audience is invited to enter and reflect. “Russia today” positions itself along the intersections of films such as Shelly Silver's “Former East/Former West” (1992), Chantal Akerman’s “From the East” (1993), Ruth Beckermann’s “American Passages” (2011), Kirstin Johnson’s “Cameraperson” (2016) and Deborah Stratman’s “Illinois Parables” (2017).