Davide Monteleone
Anima russa

  • Italy
  • it
  • en
  • 26'
Davide Monteleone | Anima russa
Trailer Try 7 days free

Synopsis

Filmed in 2013, Anima russa follows Italian photographer Davide Monteleone, who had spent the previous decade developing a complex relationship with Russia, marked by fascination, melancholy, and contradictions. From Moscow to the Caucasus, these territories had become central to his photographic work, as he documented their landscapes, inhabitants, and the historical and political tensions that run through them.

In Anima russa, Monteleone reflects on his career and what first drew him to documentary photography. Influenced as much by Russian literature as by his experiences in the field, he describes his attraction to the margins, places considered dangerous, and stories that initially seem far removed from his own life before becoming deeply personal. His work unfolds over time, shaped by encounters, journeys, and a gradually deepening understanding of the places he photographs.

Through wanderings in Moscow, memories of the Caucasus, and reflections on his photographic language, the documentary traces how Monteleone gradually came to make Russia a subject of photographic exploration. His journey brings into focus the questions that run through his work, from his relationship with the people he photographs to the sometimes blurred boundary between observation and interpretation. The film thus offers insight into a body of work developed over the years, as well as the personal perspective that has shaped it.

What you will find in this film

Davide Monteleone’s intimate relationship with Russia · The making of a long-term photographic narrative · Photographing the Caucasus beyond representations and stereotypes · The choice of medium format and its influence on composition · Waiting, observation and chance at the heart of documentary photography · How a distant story gradually becomes personal

Keywords

Reportage & Society Photographic memory The Artist at Work Portrait & Aesthetics
For me, being in Russia is a little like revealing a part of myself that does not exist anywhere else.
Photography was simply a tool. A fairly useful and practical tool for seeing with my own eyes what was happening in the world.
It is very easy to take pictures. But building stories around photographs, or taking photographs that then become stories, is much more complicated.
I like it when the fundamental idea of the story you decide to tell becomes almost more important than the aesthetics of the photograph.
Every photograph you see, especially those of people, conceals a very long and complex story.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
You can try it free for 7 days.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone
Start your free trial

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Davide Monteleone, Dusha: Russian Soul, Postcart Edizioni, 2007 (in Italian and English).

• Davide Monteleone, Red Thistle, Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2012. Publisher · Libraries

• Davide Monteleone, Spasibo, Kehrer Verlag, 2013 (in English and French). Libraries

• Davide Monteleone, The April Theses 1917–2017, Postcart Edizioni, 2017 (in English and Italian). Publisher · Libraries

• Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, Random House, 2016. Publisher · Libraries

Online

Davide Monteleone – Interview – Klat Magazine – Monteleone discusses Moscow, Russian literature and the way literature, art and lived experience contribute to his photographic language. Free access. 

Photography Cannot Be Objective: Uncovering Chechnya’s Hidden Identity – The Guardian, 15 November 2013 – A particularly relevant conversation about photographic subjectivity and Monteleone’s attempt to move beyond stereotypical representations of Chechnya. Free access. 

The April Theses – LensCulture – A substantial discussion of Monteleone’s documentary method and the relationships between fact and fiction, history and photography, archival research and visual storytelling. Free access. 

Portraits from the Russian East – The New Yorker, 22 April 2015 – Introduced by Masha Gessen, this photographic essay extends the questions raised in Anima Russa, exploring Russia through portraits, landscapes, history and individual encounters. 

La fotografia documentaria / Documentary Photography – Witness Journal – A reflection on Monteleone’s understanding of documentary photography, the limits of representation and his evolution from conventional reportage toward more complex forms of visual storytelling. Free access.