Imperium

Imperium is a striking visual journey through the vast expanse of the Soviet Union, built entirely from long-forgotten archival footage shot between 1970 and 1973 by Italian filmmakers. From Arctic shores to Central Asian deserts, from the Carpathians to the Pacific, the film reveals a rich tapestry of cultures the Soviet state sought to standardise. Beginning in Moscow and gradually approaching remote villages where centuries-old traditions still thrived, exposing the decreasing weight of centralised power. Without voice-over or commentary, the images themselves reveal a profound paradox: an empire projecting unity while ruling over profoundly heterogeneous worlds. Through these rare, unfiltered glimpses of daily life, Imperium uncovers the often-hidden colonial dynamics of the USSR and the quiet resilience of its many peoples. More than a historical document, the film becomes a lens through which to understand the fractures and geopolitical tensions that continue to resonate across the former Soviet space today.

In the history of cinema, there have been several attempts to describe such a strange formation as the USSR. The most famous of them is Dziga Vertov’s film, Shestaya Chast Mira (A Sixth Part of the World). Vertov’s work is based on ideology, trade, and geography. By chance, as it usually happens, I learned about a treasure preserved in the Italian archive AAMOD in Rome and felt that there is a possibility for a film. Between 1970 and 1973, a group of Italian filmmakers embarked on a journey across more than twenty regions of the Soviet Union to document its extraordinary cultural, social, and religious diversity. In terms of scale, it was the largest project ever carried out in the USSR by foreign filmmakers. It is unique both in its perspective and in its scope – an opportunity to see the remote corners of the country and the cultural diversity of the peoples who, for a time, lived together within one strange state formation, which quite naturally ceased to exist in 1991. I could not miss such an opportunity.

PRODUCTION 1:
Essential Filmproduktion - Philippe Bober, Anne-Claire Martin
Strausberger Platz 17
10243 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 3277 7879
E-mail: info@coproductionoffice.eu

PRODUCTION 2:
Kino Produzioni - Giovanni Pompili
Via Giovanni Antonelli 49
00197 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 0697274315
E-mail: info@kinoproduzioni.it
Web: www.kinoproduzioni.com Social Media: @kinoproduzioni – Instagram, kino.produzioni – Facebook, Kino Produzioni - Linkedin

PRODUCTION 3:
Société Parisienne de Production - Philippe Bober, Anne-Claire Martin
24, rue Lamartine
75009 Paris, France
Tel: +33 156026000
E-mail: info@coproductionoffice.eu

PRODUCTION 4:
Studio Uljana Kim - Uljana Kim
Antakalnio 94-25
LT-10202 Vilnius, Lithuania
Tel: +370 69926552
E-mail: kim@lfc.lt

WORLD SALES:
Coproduction Office - Philippe Bober
24, rue Lamartine
75009 Paris, France
Tel: +33 156026000
E-mail: salesassistant@coproductionoffice.eu

PRESS OFFICE:
Gordon Spragg, Michael Arnon - WOLF Consultants
Tel: +49 1785470179
E-mail: hello@wolf-con.com

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE:
Lionella Bianca Fiorillo - Storyfinders
Tel: +39 3407364203
E-mail: lionella.fiorillo@storyfinders.it