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Documentary with interviews and archival footage about the State Circus, from the twenties the Soviet Union's great pride. Nowadays, however, there is little money left in Russia.
The Russian circus is deteriorating. From the twenties, the State Circus was the Soviet Union's great pride. Lenin considered it a chief means of propaganda, so a lot of money was made available for special shows that applauded Soviet successes in industry and space travel. Russia even had a ministry of circus affairs. The performers themselves hardly suffered from the communist regime; travelling across the Soviet Union, they lived in relative freedom. Today, many of the greatest circus performers, like the world-famous clown Oleg Popov, are living abroad. In Russia, the money is finished. Director Cherry Duyns visited Popov and other former stars, like the Kantemirov brothers - Ossetian horsemen that performed in more than fifty films. The interviews are pervaded with nostalgia and Duyns combines them with beautiful archive footage, showing the circus performers as young men.

Credits

Director
Scenario
Set geluid
Production company
VPRO TV
Distributor NL
Public Film

Title: De droom van de beer
Year: 2000
Duration : 1 hour, 30 minutes
Category: Long Documentary
Edition: NFF 2001

Gouden Kalf nominees

Beste Lange Documentaire (2001)
Cherry Duyns

NFF Archive

You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.