Free Film Screenings of "Natalia Gorbanevskaya: I am not a heroine", "Madly in Dissent" and Q&A with director Ksenia Sakharnova

Join us on 24 April for a free screening of two award-winning documentaries honouring Soviet-era dissidents Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Viktor Fainberg at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Auditorium, VZA7).

On 25 August 1968, Natalya and Viktor stood among eight protesters in Red Square, Moscow, publicly denouncing the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Both paid dearly - went through prison, punitive psychiatry and exile.

"Natalya Gorbanevskaya: I Am No Hero" (2016) traces the poet's journey from that historic act of defiance through her life in exile, capturing her modest insistence that she was "just an ordinary person" despite her legendary status.

"Madly in Dissent" (2023) follows Fainberg in France, recounting his childhood in 1930s Kharkiv, his fearless criticism of the regime, and his lifelong fight for political prisoners. The film weaves unique archival footage from Soviet, British, and Czech sources with illustrations by Nyusia Krasovitskaya, granddaughter of Gorbanevskaya and fellow protester Pavel Litvinov.

Discussion with director Ksenia Sakharnova follows the screening. Ksenia and Kirill Sakharnov, now based in Poland, explain: "With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the film has taken on a new dimension: it raises pressing moral and political questions about our own responsibility. The parallels between 1968 and today are striking."

Entrance is free upon registering via Fienta.

TW: violence, political persecution.

Natalia Gorbanevskaya (1936–2013) was born in Moscow. She was expelled from Moscow State University for her political activities, then earned a degree in philology from Leningrad State University. She worked as a librarian, bibliographer and translator, but her focus was on poetry, little of which was published. In 1969, Natalia helped found a group to promote civil rights in the Soviet Union. The next year, she published a book called “Noon” about the demonstration and subsequent trial, later published in Britain, France, Mexico and the United States under the title “Red Square at Noon.” Gorbanevskaya’s writings prompted her arrest and imprisonment in December 1969. Joan Baez sang a song about her, titled “Natalya,” with lyrics by the Iranian singer and composer Shusha Guppy. Upon release from the Kazan Special Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s, Natalya emigrated from the USSR, settling in France. In 2005, she became a citizen of Poland.

Victor Fainberg (1931-2023) was born into a Jewish family in Kharkiv (Ukraine). In 1973, after five years of incarceration in a psychiatric prison for the demonstration, Victor was released without making any single compromise with the Soviet regime. In 1974, he was expelled and resettled in London, where he pursued his fight for the liberation of Soviet prisoners of conscience and became a leading voice – along with prominent Western psychiatrists and intellectuals – against the use of psychiatry for political purposes.

Ksenia Sakharnova is a film historian, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. Born in Warsaw in 1981, she graduated from the Russian State University of Cinematography in 2005. Ksenia is the co-founder of the film production company SugarDocs, which specialises in documentary films addressing human rights issues. She is the producer and co-director, with her husband Kirill Sakharnov, of several documentaries that have been screened and awarded at major international film festivals. In 2022, she emigrated from Russia to Poland in protest against the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since 2024, she has been the programmer and presenter of the film project Dialogue through Film, which features screenings and discussions of notable films from Eastern and Central Europe in Warsaw.