Director：Ivan I. Tverdovskiy

Country/Region：Russia/Estonia/UK/Italy

Running Time：135mins

Production Company：VEGA FILM|ARK PICTURES|NAFTA|REASON8 FILMS|REVOLVER FILM

World Sales：REASON8 FILMS

Producer：Katerina Mikhaylova

Screenplay：Ivan I. Tverdovskiy

Cinematographer：Fedor Glazachev

Editor：Ivan I. Tverdovskiy

Music：Sten Sheripov

Production Designer：Vanya Bowden

Visual Effects：Hendrik Proosa

Cast：Natalya Pavlenkova、Yan Tsapnik、Kseniya Zueva、Olga Lapshina、Aleksandr Semchev

Natalia, a nun from a remote Russian monastery, comes to Moscow 17 years after the terrorist attack in Dubrovka Theatre. She was sent there to organise a memorial evening for the victims of the attack that happened in October 2002. We soon learn that Natalia and her family were the witnesses of the attack. Almost forgotten now by the outside world the organisers and participants of the memorial evening or the Conference (as they were asked to call it officially) are made feel like a burden by the rest of the society. Following the chronology of the events as told by a few participants in the memorial evening we learn the dark details of Natalia’s personal story.

Ivan I. Tverdovskiy is a Russian writer/director who was born in Moscow on December 29, 1988 and graduated from the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK, Moscow), workshop

by Alexei Uchitel. CONFERENCE is his fourth film. CONFERENCE is the story of one fragile family against the backdrop of one of the major tragedies of the 21st century in Russian history.The film is an attempt to create a cinematic reflection of the tragic events that begins as a private family story but goes beyond that.Exploring the nature of fear is my main focus in the film. The protagonist, Natasha, seems to take the participants of the memorial evening hostages, again, in order to remember and re-live in detail that terrible moment of her life. Will she, and us, overcome fear and find a way to move on?