My Father from the Island Russia

Georgij Mežujev / Czech Republic / 2026 / Czech Premiere / 28 min.

synopsis

When a young Russian director fills in an application for permanent residence in the Czech Republic, he prefers to list his father’s occupation simply as “teacher”. In reality, his father is an influential Russian political scientist who endorsed the annexation of Crimea and continues to defend Putin’s regime to this day. In this personal documentary, composed of archival home videos and remote video calls, Georgij Mežujev attempts to understand his father’s ideological stance. Why did he help legitimise a system under which his son now faces imprisonment for collaborating with opposition media? This intimate film reflects on the ongoing armed conflict by examining the gulf between a son’s love and moral responsibility.

“My protest against the regime was a protest against my father.”

biography

Georgij Mežujev studied social anthropology and is now studying documentary filmmaking at FAMU. He has a long history of employment in social services and has worked among other places at an integration centre for Ukrainian refugees. He is interested in systems of power and independent thinking within institutional structures.