Zhenya Berkovich’s speech
Renowned Russian directors, singers, artists, and musicians have come together to create a musical composition based on the poetry of director and poet Zhenya Berkovich. She and her colleague Svetlana Petriychuk have been in prison since May 2023 due to their anti-war stance and the creation of the award-winning play Finist the Brave Falcon, which, three years after its premiere, was interpreted as containing elements that justified terrorism.
Since May 2023, the two women who crafted this work of art have appeared before a Russian court eight times, seeking to prove that imprisonment for creating a theatrical production is absurd. During the first hearing in 2024, which resulted in another extension of their pre-trial detention, Zhenya Berkovich addressed the court in verse.
In the poem, she tells her story and talks about her two adopted daughters with special needs, her family, and the enduring belief that she and Svetlana still have in the possibility of a fair trial, although this may seem to need a miracle.
After the court’s decision to extend their pre-trial detention until March 2024, director and producer Roma Liberov invited actress Chulpan Khamatova, musicians Naum Blik, Vladi, Ligalize, Krec, and journalist Katerina Gordeeva to lend their voices to this epochal document. Together with a team of like-minded individuals they created a video based on courtroom sketches.
Zhenya Berkovich (born April 29, 1985, St. Petersburg) is a Russian playwright, poet, and theater director. Hailing from a family of human rights activists, including her recently deceased maternal grandmother and poet father, Berkovich was a student at and later a member of Kirill Serebrennikov's Seventh Studio. She is actively involved in charitable activities, launching the I’m Not Alone festival and a summer camp for children in orphanages. In 2018, Berkovich founded the independent theater company SOSO Daughters, organizing a project where children worked with professional directors to stage performances in Moscow's leading theaters. She is married to Nikolay Matveyev, who is also a theater professional. In 2019, they adopted two daughters aged 13 and 15.
Svetlana Petriychuk (born April 22, 1980, Frunze) is a Russian playwright, screenwriter, theatre and film director, and educator. In 2022, she won the Golden Mask “Best Playwright” award for the play Finist, the Brave Falcon. She has run educational courses and masterclasses in playwriting. Together with Olzhas Zhanaidarov, she taught courses at the Moscow Art Theater School under the guidance of Viktor Ryzhakov. An accomplished screenwriter and director, she has contributed to various feature and documentary films and series produced in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Available on all streaming services: band.link/incourt
20 янв 2024
