Project Lifeline — Nikita Dobrynin, Sonya Fedorova — Alla Demidova — The Grandeur of Absence

Project “Line of Life” — the documentary film “The Grandeur of Absence”
(Russia, 2026)
Duration: 1 hour

Directors: Sonya Fyodorova, Nikita Dobrynin
Cinematographers: Dmitry Slenitsky, Dmitry Nagovsky
Music: Vigdish Farheis, Mikhail Nenitsa

The Grandeur of Absence is a film about the great Russian actress Alla Demidova. Shot at the intersection of documentary and fiction, it is divided into three acts: “Myth,” “Being,” and “Afterword.”

The film begins with the dismantling of an exhibition dedicated to Demidova at the Saint Petersburg Museum of Theatre and Music, but the film itself never turns for a second into a banal museum of memory—it is a unique actor’s portrait, a fully realized work of art.

On screen, viewers see her in excerpts from plays and films, interspersed with historical footage, newsreels, and recordings of the exhibition. Demidova’s voice accompanies you throughout the entire film. The actress speaks about her family and difficult childhood. “What remains after a theatre actor?” Demidova asks.

The film has impressive sound design; even in fairly everyday scenes, sounds give rise to magic.

One of the film’s directors, Nikita Dobrynin, was a student of director Alexander Sokurov.

Project “Line of Life”
Art director: Polina Adamova
PR: Masha Khinich
Facebook: Natali Moritz
Project producer: Faina Novokhodskaya