LETTERS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

2021. Documentary short, 16 min.

In a poetic and sensual imagery, Lotte Leth Nielsen draws in the film "Letters from St. Petersburg" an emphatic portrait of a group of young Russians from the LGBT+ organisation Coming Out.

The young people in the film move far beyong the limits for acceptable norms for gender and sexuality in a Russia that, not least since the adaption of the law prohibiting homo propaganda in 2013, has experienced a definite decline in living conditions and basic rights for LGBT+ people.

Based on the young people's own universes of music, lyrics and stories, Lotte Leth Nielsen shows, among others, what it means to stand out from the norm in a society that by force tries to suppress all life forms that do not live up to the conservative, patriarchal values that the government alone wants to promote. The film takes place over a couple of days where the young people are gathered in the collective Triglinki in the central Saint Petersburg.