JOIN US FOR THE SLOVO 5 OPENING NIGHT!

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VIOLET DREAMS 

ALLA BASHENKO 

(In Russian) 

Sunday 16 March | 8 pm  Erarta Galleries  

Tickets: £25 - Book Here >> 

Tickets for Russky London Club Members: £15 - Book Here >>

This musical and poetic evening - inspired by the work of London-based Russian poetess, Alla Bashenko - will take listeners on a journey through her creative realities. Inspired by her new book, Violet Dreams, actors and musicians will explore the new work of literature and aesthetics, and, of course, new transcendental music. Alla Bashenko's books have brought many of us together creatively in London and tonight we celebrate this creative collaboration, the launch of her new book, and the success of the SLOVO Festival with champagne, canapes, poetry, and live music!

 

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POETRY, RELIGION, POLITICS

ROWAN WILLIAMS in Memory of NATALIA GORBANYEVSKAYA

(In English)

Monday 17 March | 6.30 pm

Waterstones Piccadilly

Tickets: £5 - Book Here >>

Natalia Gorbanevskaya, the remarkable poet, translator and civil rights activist will be remembered by former archbishop of Canterbury, and current master of Magdalene College Oxford, Rowan Williams, the acclaimed Valentina Polukhina, and the two award-winning British poets, Elaine Feinstein and Fiona Sampson.

Awarded the Russkaya Premia in 2010, her poetry is noted for its combination of the political with traditional, lyrical themes. Gorbanevskaya's writing has been compared to that of Marina Tsvetaeva, and speaks of pain, separation, isolation and despair.

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A BOOK WITHOUT PHOTOGRAPHS. 1993.

SERGEI SHARGUNOV

(In Russian)

Tuesday 18 March | 7 pm

MacDougall's Art

Tickets: £5 - Book Here >>

A prodigious talent, Sergei Shargunov published his first collection of stories at the age of 19. His writing is heavily informed by contemporary Russian politics and his own experiences working as a journalist and in the political sphere. His novel, Book Without Photographs (2011, published in English in March 2014), is a semi-autobiographical account which has been praised for transcending its personal context, becoming symbolic for a whole generation of young people searching for their place in the world.

Shargunov will talk about his latest novel - 1993 - and the interplay between his lively fiction and the contemporary reality it exposes.

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SUICIDE BY SOFA

MIKHAIL SHISHKIN

(In English)

Wednesday 19 March | 7 pm

King's Russia Institute

Tickets: £7 - Book Here >>

Ivan Goncharov and the pen´s victory over its writer.

“Ilya Oblomov’s genetic roots lie not in the Russia of serfs...but in a Russian initiation myth: the Russian folk epic about the hero Ilya Muromets, who spent the first thirty-three years of his life on a stove-bench doing nothing and arose from it only when Russia’s enemies attacked...to defend his native land.”

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ROSSICA PRIZE & RYTA AWARD

CAT AND MOUSE WITH DOSTOEVSKY: THE TRANSLATOR AS DETECTIVE

OLIVER READY

(In English)

Thursday 20 March | 7 pm

The London Library

Tickets £10 Book here >>>

Among the most compelling and bewildering scenes in Crime and Punishment are the ambiguous conversations between the investigator, Porfiry Petrovich, and the murderer, Raskolnikov. When reading Dostoevsky’s masterpiece in translation, however, it is easy to forget that there is also a third character in play in this and every other scene in the novel – the translator, who has to interpret, analyse and define the meaning of every ‘double-edged’ word, thereby shaping our entire understanding of the text. The conundrums involved in this process will be the focus of Oliver Ready’s talk.

ROSSICA PRIZE AWARD

Established in 2005, The Rossica Prize shines a light on Russian literature in translation, honouring the talent and dedication of the translators and publishers who give Russia an English voice. 

£3000 will be awarded to the winning translation, and the best young translator will be awarded a prize of £500.

This year's submissions represent a wide selection of Russian literary writing, past and present. The Rossica Prize judges - Professor Andrew Kahn, Professor Donald Rayfield, Dr. Oliver Ready and Dr. Jamie Rann - will discuss this year’s competition and announce the long-awaited results of the Rossica Prize and the Rossica Young Translators Award.

The Rossica Young Translators Award is the younger sibling of the Rossica Prize, inspiring the next generation of budding translators with the challenge of translating extracts from some Russia's most exciting contemporary prose.

The Rossica Translation Prize is awarded by Academia Rossica with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation.

 

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BRIG MERCURY. DOMOVOI

CATHERINE MACDOUGALL

(In Russian)

Friday 21 March | 7 pm

MacDougall's Art

Tickets: £5 - Book Here >>

With paintings as with people – the real and the fake are trapped in an eternal war.

Catherine MacDougall, expert in Russian art and co-director and founder of the internationally-recognised MacDougall’s Auction House, will discuss her exciting debut novel, Brig Mercury.

Exploring the dark side of art, Catherine MacDougall uses her in-depth, personal experience of the international art world to create a unique detective tale which combines the classic elements of thriller while addressing deeper questions about the individual’s search for self.

“The first book by the young author Catherine MacDougall, Brig Mercury is about to make waves.” Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Catherine will present her new novel - Bogey.

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IN SEARCH OF WRITER P

A Film by BORIS KARADZHEV and GRIGORII RIABUSHEV

(In Russian with English subtitles)

Saturday 22 March | 5 pm 

The May Fair Hotel Theatre 

Tickets: £5 - Book Here >> 

Victor Pelevin has become perhaps the most fashionable, popular and successful writer in Russia. He is something of a recluse; rarely seen in public - and only ever in his trademark sunglasses - never giving interviews and unwilling to be recognised in public. Who is he then, this mysterious Mr. Pelevin? How did he come to be known as “ruler of minds”? And how has he managed to remain anonymous? 

Providing a unique and unmissable insight into the life and work of this elusive writer, this film talks to the people who have known him best, his classmates and teachers, friends and fellow writers, publishers and critics...

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GENERATION P

A Film by VICTOR GINZBURG

(In Russian with English subtitles)

Saturday 22 March | 7 pm

The May Fair Hotel Theatre

Tickets: £10 - Book Here >>

Critically acclaimed director, Victor Ginzburg, will be introducing his hugely popular and highly praised adaptation of Pelevin’s Generation P. Comedy, tragedy, historical epic - this compelling drama charts the rise and rise of a poet-turned-copywriter in post-Soviet Russia's nascent advertising business, where he becomes the chief creative force in the virtual world of politics.

The film, a “hallucinatory fun-ride”, explores man’s identity in the modern, branded world, erasing the boundary between the real and the virtual to reveal the absurdities of the world we live in today.

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ILFANDPETROV

An Animated Documentary by ROMAN LIBEROV 

(In Russian with English subtitles)

Sunday 23 March | 5 pm 

The May Fair Hotel Theatre 

Tickets: £5 - Book here >>

This documentary/animation film celebrates the lives of the much loved Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov. Most popular for their two satirical novels, The Twelve Chairs (1928) and its sequel The Little Golden Calf (1931), the writing of this literary duo is characterised by their playful and irreverent humour which revealed the absurdities of Soviet reality. 

The creator of the film will join us to talk about the inspiration behind this film and his other animated documentaries about Russian writers - Brodsky, Dovlatov, and Olesha, to name a few.

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Morphine

A Film by ALEXEI BALABANOV

(In Russian with English subtitles)

Sunday 23 March | 8.30pm 

The May Fair Hotel Theatre

Tickets: £10 - Book Here >>

Starring Leonid Bichevin, Ingeborga Dapkunaite and Andrey Panin, Morphine is a captivating drama from iconic director Alexei Balabanov. Originally written by Sergei Bodrov before his death in 2002, the film is loosely based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s early autobiographical stories. Chronicling the experiences of a young doctor during the civil war, the film follows his descent into drug addiction, using the indivual’s increasing disconnect with reality to explore the greater theme of Russia’s descent into chaos.