The Pushkin Club presents the first London screening of the documentary Natalia Gorbanevskaya: 'I am not a hero’ (2016) directed by Ksenia and Kirill Sakharnov.
On August 25, 1968, Russian poet Natalia Gorbanevskaya (1936–2013) made the most daring decision of her life. Pushing a pram with her three-month-old son, she joined seven other protesters in Moscow’s Red Square to denounce the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. The act cost her several years of imprisonment. A legendary figure of the Soviet dissident movement, Gorbanevskaya was often described as a hero. She would always disagree: “I’m not a hero. I’m just an ordinary person”. Over the course of several years, the filmmakers followed Natalia Gorbanevskaya, asking what inspired her poetry, what compelled her to step onto Red Square that August day, and how she rebuilt her life after being forced into exile from the USSR.
2026 marks the 90th anniversary of Gorbanevskaya’s birth.
The film is 74 minutes long and is in Russian with English subtitles. It will be followed by a discussion with the director, Ksenia Sakharnova.
About the Filmmakers:
Kirill Sakharnov is a graduate of the All-Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). In 2012 he founded Sugardocs, a production company specialising in films on human rights issues. He is a laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group Prize in the category "For the protection of human rights through culture and art" for 2019.
Ksenia Sakharnova is also a graduate of VGIK. Since 2012 she has been working with Kirill as a director and producer of films for Sugardocs. Since 2018, she has acted as an organiser and presenter of film screenings in collaboration with the Gulag History Museum (Moscow) Sakharov Center (Moscow) and Yeltsin Center (Yekaterinburg).
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ksenia and Kirill emigrated to Poland, where for the last two years they have been running the "Dialogue Through Film" project in Warsaw, which includes screenings and discussions of the best films from Eastern European countries.
Selected Filmography:
Madly in Dissent (2023, Czech Republic, Israel, documentary, 77')
Parallels. Events. People (2013-2015, USA, web-series, 36 episodes).
Olya’s love (Russia-Austria, documentary, 2014)
Mamas, Kids and the Law (2013, Russia, documentary, 52’).
5 minutes of Freedom (2012, Russia, documentary, 86’). This was the Sakharnovs’ first full-length film, which also dealt with the 1968 demonstration on Red Square, but in the context of a new generation of young protesters in Russia, who staged a demonstration on Red Square to commemorate the legendary protest.
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