Directors: Yonathan & Masha Zur

95 minutes Russian, English subtitles, Russia/Israel 2004

In 1935 three Walt Disney films were screened in Moscow. Fyodor Chytruk, then a young art student, saw these films and didn't believe his eyes; he was convinced that he had seen a miracle unfolding before him. What he didn't know was that one day he himself would become one of the greats of Russian animation. Through his personal story, we discover a magical art form that remained closed behind the Iron Curtain for decades. Compared to the other arts, especially literature and theater, animated films were considered a children's art form and passed with relative ease through the strict censorship of the Soviet Union. Like all Soviet institutions, the animation studios Soyuzmultfilm enjoyed full government support, a fact that provided the artists with generous production budgets as well as distribution in 112,000 cinemas around the USSR. This situation allowed for the development of a tradition of animation style that was not only for children. Magia Russica moves between the sights and sounds of the Russian landscape and into those of the animated films themselves. Today, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia makes the transition into capitalism, the animation artists discover that the rules of the market and ratings are not necessarily less restrictive than ideological censorship. In a rare look into the artistic process, the artists share their ideas about art, cinema and the way in which they should be related. Magia Russica is guided by the spirit of their words.