How to Save a Dead Friend

Marusya Syroechkovskaya, (2022, DCP)
Films at the Whitney

It’s 2005. Russia’s leaders eagerly work to realize the authoritarian state. Young people commit suicide far too often as a last act of self-will among a generation in crisis, stuck in endless cycles of violence, addiction, and depression. At age 16, Marusya decides to join them. Then, to her surprise, she meets Kimi—her soulmate—who stops her from this final act of destruction and helps her discover her artistic voice. Filmed over the course of 12 years, Marusya uses her camera to document their love story from their rising hope as she and Kimi get married, to the ever-increasing threat from their country’s internal weapons of isolation and division. Winner of DOC NYC’s 2022 Grand Jury Award in the International Competition, HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND is an urgent memoir of two lost individuals, and a message from a generation silenced by a repressive dictator’s regime.