To capture the cultural and social pulse of the city of Moscow, director Ruslan Fedotow went underground.
The result — Fedotow’s 63-minute documentary “Where Are We Headed,” filmed in the Moscow Metro over the course of a year — is a fascinating character study of Russia’s diverse population.
The film, which was featured at this year’s True/False Film Fest, forgoes a standard plot or cast of characters, instead choosing to wander through the bustling metro system and assemble a portrait of its passengers piece-by-piece. Fedotow never conducts formal interviews with his subjects, nor does his presence become a central part of the film. Instead, the camera becomes a fly on the wall — an unseen, unacknowledged voyeur. This style allows the audience to witness the odd and touching interactions of a vast troupe of characters with remarkable candidness.
The director’s camerawork feels like people-watching as he traces individuals’ paths through dense crowds with an eye for their shimmering idiosyncrasies. Sometimes, the camera weaves through crowds, lingering briefly on each passing pedestrian; other times, it singles out a character worth watching.
Before Fedotow’s lens, a man dressed as Santa Claus quotes Dostoevsky in an existential debate with a companion. An evasive balloon vender is apprehended by the police. A cat perches pleasantly atop the hat of its traveling owner. These odd bits of life make the mosaic of citizens sparkle.
However, the film is also charged with fiery moments of political unrest. Several political opposition protests are seen marching through the metro, chanting and bearing oppositional flags. Elsewhere, two young Russian men and two American soldiers have a lively but completely inarticulate conversation; after the Americans deboard the train in a flurry of gregarious hand-shaking, the Russian men slouch in their seats and curse them out.
“Should’ve taken them out right there,” one of them says.
Fedotow also shot rare and raw footage of the police who populate the Moscow Metro. In the film, the black-clad officers pour through stations in droves, directing pedestrians in some scenes and arresting protestors in others.
In one of the film’s most striking shots, four officers stand silhouetted against a night sky exploding with red and blue fireworks celebrating Russia’s Airborne Forces Day, a popular, patriotic holiday. Awed citizens, too, watch the lightshow through train windows. It’s a moment of quiet unity.
Then, the sky darkens. The officers return to their duties, and another train rips through the station. With episodes like this, Fedotow skillfully displays the rocky relationship between citizens and governmental forces — sometimes bonded in moments of patriotism, and other times at odds in daily struggles.
“Where Are We Headed” is the perfect embodiment of “sonder” — that internet-bred word hinting at the eerie and thrilling realization that every passing stranger is living a life as vivid as your own. This feeling is heightened by the remarkable intimacy that Fedotow achieves with his subjects.
To gather such honest footage, Fedotow said his goal was to be “invisible” while filming. This goal was especially crucial when filming police officers — in fact, Fedotow said he was detained multiple times throughout the process.
The effort paid off, though — “Where Are We Headed” is a look into Russian society that is hard to beat. It’s also nearly impossible to attain as the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still rages on.
“Obviously, now is not [the] right time to go to Moscow’s subway physically,” Fedotow said in a Q&A after a screening of his film at the True/False festival. “Through my movie, I hope that you can find the key [to] what was going on for the last two years there and what [is happening] right now.”
Fedotow also adamantly denounced the war on behalf of himself and his team.
“We are documentary filmmakers and fiction filmmakers from Belarus and Russia, [and] we hate this war,” he said. “We are against this.”
When the film nears its end — when Fedotow finally follows a train emerging from the metro, its passengers blinking in the blinding light — things are quiet. Through the windows, towering cities and acres of land fly by in a blur. Here, the liminal magic of the metro is broken, and the real world is sobering. It’s a moment of quiet reflection that begs the titular question not only on behalf of the train passengers, but on behalf of the nation: Where are we headed?
Edited by Lucy Valeski, lvaleski@themaneater.com