Planned amidst growing concerns about the corruption and lack of transparency plaguing the Russian presidential elections, Winter, Go Away! is a collective work signed by ten emerging film-makers commissioned by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Their brilliant, extensive observation exercise chronicles rallies, victories and defeats, and reveals, in a raw, urgent style, the texture of a polarized country on the brink of implosion. We are invited to witness a kaleidoscope of street actions occasionally colored by artistic performances: a young man writes ‘Putin’ on the floor, with his head, after dipping it into blood-like red paint, opposition groups prepare protests, people rally in the streets and are mercilessly beaten, pushed and ‘pacified’ by the riot police, the group Pussy Riot engage in their now notorious performance, mysterious buses show-up full of voters who dislike the idea of being filmed, local election officials refuse to turn over documentation to poll watchers, and – a premiere in the recent documentary film-making involving street protests – an opposition spokesman is being literally grabbed by the police while being on camera with a TV reporter. You will be left with a sense of shock, outrage and, possibly, deja-vu. Yet another winter which did not live to see its Spring.

The ten graduates-directors are: Alexey Zhiryakov / Anna Moiseenko / Anton Seregin / Askold Kurov / Denis Klebleev / Dmitry Kubasov / Elena Khoreva / Madina Mustafina / Nadezhda Leonteva / Sofia Rodkevich.