Memory

Born in Crimea, Vladlena Sandu is sent at the age of six to live in Grozny after her parents’ divorce. There, she meets Mikhail Alexandrovich, her violent grandfather with seven fingers. She spends her school years under the cult of Vladimir Lenin, whose name she ironically bears as a portmanteau (Vlad-Lena). But one day, the USSR collapses, and with it, the cult of Lenin. This is followed by a violent war between the independent Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation. A bloody war that would last nearly ten years, consuming Vladlena’s childhood. Thirty years later, she makes Memory to exorcise her past and attempt to understand the patterns of violence that are passed down from generation to generation. She creates tableaux of breathtaking beauty, visually inspired by the avant-garde filmmaker Sergei Parajanov. In the theatre of her childhood – one of violence and beatings, followed by war, hunger and flight – she nevertheless manages to save the little girl in the red dress. In doing so, she offers the despairing a work that inspires hope and brings healing.

Aurélien Marsais

Memory, 2026
No Nation Without Culture, 2022
Identification, 2022
Eight Images From the Life of Nastya Sokolova, 2018
Holy God, 2016
Kira, 2015