Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara 
CWC Global: Captain Volkonogov Escaped
- Thursday, April 17, 2025 / 7:00 PM - 9:45 PM (PDT)
- Pollock Theater
- Screening Format: 4K digital projection (126 minutes)
- With Filmmakers Alexey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova
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Starring: Yura Borisov (Anora)
The fast-paced parable Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021) is set in a city that resembles Leningrad in 1938, during a tense period of political persecutions and mass fear. Captain of the Department of Internal Affairs Fedor Volkonogov (Academy Award nominee Yura Borisov) specializes in forcefully obtaining self-incriminating evidence from persons under investigation. When the moment comes for the repressive system to turn the eye on its own soldiers, Volkonogov’s direct supervisor commits suicide. Fedor foresees his own arrest and flees, hunted by his former comrades. Perturbed by a warning from the afterlife that he is destined for eternal torment, he embarks on a desperate journey for redemption, haunted by the ghosts of those he once condemned.
Filmmakers Alexey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova will join moderator Sasha Razor (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Captain Volkonogov Escaped.
This event is free but a reservation is recommended in order to guarantee a seat.
Biographies
Filmmakers Alexey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova
In 2013, Natasha Merkulova and Alexey Chupov teamed up for their feature debut Intimate Parts, which was selected by the Karlovy Vary IFF and won the Best Debut Award at the National Film Festival Kinotavr in Sochi. The movie received three Nika nominations for the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, including Discovery of the Year. The eight-episode series Gogol, written by Merkulova and Chupov, was theatrically released from 2017 to 2018. Their co-written space drama Salyut-7 also released in 2017 and won the Golden Eagle National Award for Best Picture in 2018.
Their second feature film, The Man Who Surprised Everyone, was selected for the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice International Film Festival, won the Best Actress Award, and was nominated for the Queer Lion Award. The film won thirty awards worldwide, and was nominated for the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize. In 2021, Captain Volkonogov Escaped, the third feature film by Merkulova and Chupov, was officially selected for the main competition at the Venice International Film Festival. It won seventeen prizes and awards at various festivals worldwide, including the Philadelphia IFF Best Narrative Feature Award; the Chicago IFF Best Art Direction Award; three Golden Unicorn Awards, including Best Picture; three White Elephant Awards for the Russian Guild of Film Critics, including Best Picture; nine Nika nominations for the Russian Academy, including Best Picture; and the Grand Prix of Les Arcs IFF.
In 2021, Merkulova and Chupov joined the team of directors for the Netflix original series Anna K. They are currently working on a new feature film in the US.
Moderator Sasha Razor (Film and Media Studies, UCSB)
Sasha Razor is a lecturer in the Film and Media Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara who specializes in Russophone and East-Central European cinemas. She earned her PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA in 2020, with a dissertation focused on Soviet screenwriting in the 1920s and 1930s. Her research interests include silent film, avant-garde cinema and literature, Belarusian and Ukrainian culture, and diaspora studies. Razor is also a curator, journalist, and co-founder of the Russophone Los Angeles Research Collective, which promotes the study of Russophone migration to Southern California.
This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center.
CWC Global
Media are global by nature; they express culture just as much as they transcend borders. The CWC Global series is dedicated to showcasing media from around the world. This series features screenings and events that place UCSB in conversation with international media makers and global contexts across our deeply connected world.