INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
With their access to the West cut off since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russian filmmakers have turned to the city of
Kaliningrad as a backdrop for Europe in their pictures.Wedged on the Baltic Sea coast between Poland and Lithuania, the Russian enclave is
dotted with Germanic facades, narrow streets and churches.The region, conquered by the Red Army in 1945, still bears the architectural
Kaliningrad is very convenient
The administration welcomes us with open arms, we pay everything in rubles and the extras speak Russian," said Muscovite producer Nikita
around the fall of the Wall.It was due to be filmed in Germany, but with Russia's large-scale military intervention in Ukraine, "Europe
basically shut the door in our face," Sapronov told AFP.His team fell back on Kaliningrad, recreating a section of the Berlin Wall in the
city center this year."Kaliningrad perfectly filled in for East and West Berlin," with its mix of German and Soviet buildings, Sapronov
said.The proliferation of shoots in Kaliningrad speaks to the surprising health of the Russian film industry, despite its isolation from the
international cultural scene and the flight of a work force fearing mobilization.Local productions have benefitted from generous state
subsidies.Twice as many Russian children's movies were made in 2022 than the previous year, according to the Russian industry publication
productions are aimed exclusively at a domestic audience.The government doubled its support for the cinema industry to 14.9 billion rubles
