The Building

Matilda Mester, Tatjana Kononenko / Germany, Ukraine / 2019 / World Premiere / 93 min.

synopsis

In Kharkov, Ukraine lies Derzhprom Palace. The constructivist building, built between 1925 and 1927, was intended to embody the idea of communism. The palace soon became a symbol of the new society and inspired many avant-garde artists, e.g. Mayakovsky, Ejsenstein, Vertov and Dovzhenko. The film captures the current bustling activity of the building at a slow pace and offers a kaleidoscope of different perspectives. Through archival materials - building plans and contemporary film footage - it maps the history of the building and creates tension between the past and present, the new and old parts, the duties of employees and two astonished tourists wandering about.

“Like rag-pickers of history, we look at the fragments left over from a time when a new society seemed possible, convinced that history is ultimately about the people who inhabit it” M. Mester, T. Kononenko

biography

Danish cinematographer Matilda Mester studied film at Berlin's DFFB. Her debut, Limbo, was nominated by the European Film Awards jury for the Fassbinder Prize for Discovery of the Year.

Tatjana Kononenko (1980) was born in Ukraine and now lives and works in Berlin and Tbilisi. She graduated in film direction from DFFB. Her first documentary, Keep Out, premiered at the thirteenth annual Ji.hlava festival.

more about film

director:	Matilda Mester, Tatjana Kononenko
producer:	Svitlana Zinovyeva
photography:	Matilda Mester, Bruno Derksen
editing:	Matilda Mester, Tatjana Kononenko, Bruno Derksen, Slava Poliantsev
music:	Felia Gram-Hanssen
sound:	Tatjana Kononenko, Maxim Stativko, Oleksandr Kovalievskyi, Bruno Derksen, Tobias Bilz, Jan Aleyt