A documentary by Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen entitled Putin’s Kiss has won the Documentary Cinematography Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Masha Drokova, a member of the Russian youth movement Nashi, which supports Vladimir Putin.
Once a devoted pro-Putin activist, Masha is famed for getting to kiss her idol on the cheek.
But then things go awry. Gradually changing her beliefs, Masha becomes friends with several opposition journalists, including Oleg Kashin, who was severely beaten up in November 2010.
Narrated by reporters, including Kashin himself, the documentary shows Putin as an antihero.
The festival’s main prizes went to the documentary The House I Live In by Eugene Zaretski, and the feature drama Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin.