Music student and gifted singer, Erik, is preparing to sing Schubert's
Winterreise for a competition. As his teacher slams him for his poor
performance, Erik's life is changed irrevocably by a chance meeting with
Lyokha, a coarse and aggressive petty criminal.
On 30 June 2013, Vladimir Putin signed the “anti-gay propaganda”
bill, banning the promotion of “untraditional” sexual relationships
among minors. Taramaev and L’vova’s film became a victim of this new
bill. In August 2013, the Ministry of Culture declined the film a
distribution license, and only later reestablished the distribution
rights to limited audiences above 18 years of age. Despite this
official permission to distribute the film,
A Winter Journey reached
only several Russian movie theaters, and some of them, such as Rodina
in St. Petersburg, even removed the film from their program after it had
been approved for the screening. In an ironic gesture, the official
trailer for
A Winter Journey ends with the words: “
A Winter Journey… Starting on February 20
th,
only in tolerant movie theaters.” Russian audiences might be excited
about this narratively unconventional and stylistically complex film;
however, it seems that it has been made at the wrong time and in the
wrong country.
