Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.
Tom Hollander
as Kazimir Malevich (voice)
Matthew Macfadyen
as Vladimir Lenin (voice)
Eleanor Tomlinson
as Lyubov Popova (voice)
James Fleet
as Wassily Kandinsky (voice)
Daisy Bevan
as Varvara Stepanova (voice)
Sean Cronin
as Sergeant Berman
Alex Enmarch
as Nikolay Punin
Ernest Gromov
as Officer Vorontsov
Tom Rose
as Gustav Klutsis - Prisoner
Андрей Кончаловский
as Self
Mikhail Piotrovsky
as Self
Zelfira Tregulova
as Self
