Sergey Nikolaev

Russia: Beyond the 101st kilometre

Sergey’s first series published on the NCU is called Russia: Beyond the 101st kilometre. “One hundred and first kilometre”, as an unofficial term, is well known to the generation that lived in the former USSR. The minimum distance from Moscow already defined a kind of status that was radically different from life in the capital. This life in the regions attracted Sergei with its directness and drama. The period of filming on the subject of interest to the author stretches over two decades and covers all the key moments of the country’s transformation. It would seem that not much has changed in the visuals shown in the series over the years. And yet, the main idea, read in every frame, leaves no shadow of doubt that the people who accidentally get on Sergey Nikolaev’s path, patient, hard-working, simple people, in their overwhelming majority remain People.