From the thematic programme 'A desire called Utopia', LEFFEST will screen the film Fragment of an Empire de Fridrikh Ermler, accompanied live by the music of Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio and presented by Pierre Léon.
Filimonov, the protagonist, is a young man who lost his memory during WWI but regains it years later and suddenly sees the world of 1928, and the new Soviet society, through the eyes of Tsarist-era 1915. Nothing is as he remembers, including the fact that St. Petersburg is now Leningrad and modernised. Recalling too that he had a wife, he sets out to find her. The film is a winning mix of political parable, social satire, and complex psychology, and displays terrific location photography.
Restoration by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the EYE Filmmuseum in partnership with Gosfilmofond of Russia.