The Premiere Screening of the Film "DSCH. Symphony No. 13" was held at the Eurasian Documentary Film Club

On May 28, 2026, the I.S. Turgenev Library hosted the premiere screening of the documentary “DSCH. Symphony No. 13” by Grigory Ilugdin. The event was held within the Eurasian Documentary Film Club and became part of the "Won Together" Film Marathon.

The film is dedicated to one of the most dramatic pages in the history of Russian culture - the creation and first performance of Dmitry Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony based on the poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The narrative focuses on the events of December 1962, when, on the eve of the premiere of the Babi Yar symphony, a tense struggle unfolded around the work due to the unwillingness of the Soviet authorities to openly talk about the tragedy of the mass extermination of Jews during the Nazi occupation.

However, the film goes far beyond the reconstruction of historical events. This is a deep study of the personality of Dmitry Shostakovich himself, a creator who had to exist in the most difficult circumstances of his time, preserving inner freedom, human dignity and loyalty to art and duty.

According to Grigory Ilugdin, the work on the film lasted a year and a half and required a serious study of archives, documents, photographs and eyewitness accounts. A special place in the film is occupied by the music of Dmitry Shostakovich, which becomes an independent dramatic element of the narrative.

After the screening, a lengthy discussion of the film took place with the participation of the audience. The conversation went far beyond cinema and touched upon issues of historical memory, the responsibility of society towards the past and the importance of art in understanding the tragic pages of history.

Answering questions from the audience, Grigory Ilugdin noted that he had deliberately abandoned the traditional biographical narrative scheme. He was not interested in a consistent account of the composer's life, but in an attempt to show the inner world of Dmitry Shostakovich, his doubts and moral choices. The film director emphasized that the fate of the author of the Thirteenth Symphony is a kind of "roller coaster" of human fate, where the greatest creative gift constantly faces external pressure and internal challenges.

The film director also spoke about the work on the artistic style of the film, in which documentary chronicles, photographs, animation elements and musical drama form a single expressive space. According to the audience, it was this combination of tools that made it possible to make a complex historical theme emotionally close to a modern viewer.

"The importance of Shostakovich's creative legacy continues to increase over the years,"- the organizers are sure.

The organizers of the screening are the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, the World Peoples Assembly.

The event was supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives and with the assistance of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation.

More information is on the official website of the World Peoples Assembly and at media@world-assembly.org.