Chto Delat "Border Musical", 2013, 48 min

Chto Delat’s film project “A Border Musical” was a contribution to "Monday Begins on Saturday", the first edition of Bergen Assembly, a triennial of contemporary art in Norway, curated by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff. The filmic mise-en-scène hybridizes two issues that tend to be unpopular with Norwegian audiences: the marriage market along the Norwegian-Russian border and the rigid Norwegian social care system, which routinely pulls children from so-called problem families in order to integrate them into “healthier environments.” After extensive research, Chto Delat? realized a studio production with musical interludes in the style of Bertolt Brecht’s “Singspiel”; charming and nimble, it deconstructs the glossy image of a caring community.