Opera of Horror and Salvation

 The libretto of this opera tells the thousand-year-old story of a young boy called to military service by his country. In an attempt to escape his tragic fate, D. seeks advice from the Mysterious Lake. It sends him to seek salvation deep in the bowels of the city. Like Joseph K. or Winston Smith, his quest will lead him into the grinding machine of the state, where he will eventually be engulfed by autocratic madness and lost souls. Filmed in 2019 before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Opera of Horror and Salvation blends opera with footage from Russian army recruitment offices and the city, even as the regime's repressive reflexes turn increasingly violent. Anastasia Veber (Golden Bear at Berlinale 2022 for Trap), a filmmaker who left Russia after the invasion, offers here a musical, masterful and resolutely anti-war work. More relevant today than ever, it successfully captures in images and music the suffocating political environment, as well as the Russian youth seeking to escape this grip which has sadly only tightened further. 

Aurélien Marsais

Opera of Horror and Salvation, 2026
Sedated, 2023 
Trap, 2022
Syndrome IO, 2019