Leto

Screening followed by discussion Followed by discussion with journalist and filmmaker Bilge Ebiri and the scriptwriter for Leto, Michael Idov

Co-presented with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)

Dir. Kirill Serebrennikov. 2018, 126 mins. In Russian with English subtitles. With Teo Yoo, Irina Starshenbaum, Roman Bilyk. A defiant pioneer of hard-edged Russian music, Viktor Tsoi embodied the rock culture of early 1980s Leningrad, and wrote impassioned anthems that helped fuel the USSR’s Perestroika transformation. The iconic singer-songwriter’s early journey from underground experimentation towards Soviet Union–wide stardom is recreated in Leto, a film that was described by Variety as “wild, whirling” and premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Despite the film’s impassioned advocacy for free artistic expression, its accomplished director, Kirill Serebrennikov, where he spent nearly two years under house arrest in Russia, awaiting judgment on dubious claims of corruption. Join the Museum and PEN for this cinematic celebration of uninhibited creativity in the face of institutional oppression. 

Update: Serebrennikov was recently released from house arrest.   

This program is part of the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, and is presented by the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and Museum of the Moving Image with the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. 

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.