In May and December 2017, my father Emile van Rouveroy and I went to Russia to shoot and research for a new documentary with the working title "Vremja" (time). The planned film aims to take a look at contemporary Russia from the perspective of women from three different generations.
In May, we followed several women in the region of Tomsk (Siberia) and traveled back to Moscow by train (56 hours) with one of our leading characters - a provodnitsa (conductor) on the train. In December, we joined Anna and Svetlana (pictured here) who visited the authorities in Moscow as part of their campaign to have the hospital in their Siberian village repaired. In Tomsk, we followed Maria Danilova, a woman who has overcome major hardships in her life and is now a strong advocate for women's rights in her city. This new collaboration is the sixth film project between my father and me, following earlier documentaries in Burkina Faso, Mali and The Netherlands.