How to Save a Dead Friend

Marusya Syroechkovskaya's 2023 documentary records a friendship that began at sixteen across ten years. The director and Kimi filmed themselves continuously, and the material holds moments of joy along with the depression. The subject is addiction and depression. Kimi's condition worsens over the years and the means of treatment prove inadequate; the narrative shows this not as a personal weakness but as part of the health system and the general atmosphere in the country. The footage is amateur and its quality varies. The director narrates in her own voice. The film has been read as a record of Russia in that period as much as a personal elegy. Who it's for: those who follow personal documentary. Who it's not for: viewers for whom suicide, addiction and death would sit heavily; the documentary takes them as direct subjects.