Anastasia, directed by Sarah McCarthy, will premiere at the 47th Annual Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9 as part of the Short Cuts Programme.
Russian civil rights activist Anastasia Shevchenko has faced strong repercussions for speaking out against her government. She endured house arrest for two years and became the first person found guilty of “organizing activity of an undesirable organization” by a Russian court, for her work with the Open Russia movement. Amnesty International declared her a “prisoner of conscience.”
While Anastasia was under arrest, her teenage daughter Alina was hospitalized and died alone, becoming an early example of the Russian regime’s willingness to use the separation of parents and children as a way to silence dissent. This intentional rupture of the parental bond is a denial of the elemental human right to care for our children.
The spiritual and emotional burden that Anastasia carries makes her determination even more remarkable, as she continues to raise her two other children. One morning she gathers them, and her elderly mother, and takes a train across Russia to the Black Sea, a journey that this intimate story captures with poetic visual grace. Against the bright horizon, they come to terms with the family’s loss, and Anastasia realizes the only way she can continue to fight is to leave her homeland.
Toronto International Film Festival Screening Schedule
Anastasia, Premiere
Friday, September 9 at 2:45 pm
Scotiabank Theater Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6, Canada
Anastasia, Public Screening
Wednesday, September 14 at 1:30 pm
Scotiabank Theater Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6, Canada
Anastasia, Public Screening
Friday, September 16 at 5:40 pm
Scotiabank Theater Toronto, 259 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3M6, Canada
