David Cairns
Exchange Student: Yulia Burakova

Film: Tsirk
2009 | 23 mins | Russia

Synopsis
Alexei Krugliakov is serious about being funny. At 25, he has finally found his vocation. After school he went to work in a dirty, sooty factory. When his national service came up, he was wounded by shrapnel as an army medic. But now he's studying to become a clown at the State School for Circus and Variety Arts, in Moscow. It's a tough discipline which requires physical fitness and total dedication.

In Tsirk, Alexei is our guide to the school, a shabby relic of what was a vast Soviet circus system instituted to entertain the masses and spread propaganda. We meet other students and teachers including Tania and Jenia, a married couple who teach mime together, and Roman Novak, the school administrator who was a strongman until an accident with a one-ton weight crushed his spine. Committed and underpaid, the staff remember better, but less free, days - and have mixed hopes for the futures of the young people they teach.

Crew
Director/Camera David Cairns | Editor Duncan Bruce | Sound Recordist Timur Ibatullin
Sound Design Luis Fernandez Garcia | Interpreter Maria Nikolaeva

Festival Screenings:
Sheffield International Documentary Festival, UK
Russian Film Festival, London

David's experience in Moscow
Moscow was fascinating, and confounded my expectations. I hadn't thought to be reminded so strongly of the USA, but those two vast countries seem to share a sense of comfortable isolation from the rest of the world. Moscow's wide avenues reminded me of LA, where the car is also king. And, despite their history, Muscovites are enthusiastic individualists.

Everybody we met tried to feed us - I've never tasted such good smoked fish. I was amazed to talk to students 10 years younger than me who actually read books, and knew some British authors far better than I did. I enjoyed the similarities between the Film School (VGIK) and the Circus School where I was shooting: two great institutions in their respective fields, with a common approach to teaching which may be 80 years old, but seemed radical to me. It was a privilege to visit.