One man dies a million times
By Charlotte Stace
La Filmoteca holds a screening of the Russian-language film One Man Dies a Million Times (2019). Directed by Jessica Oreck, the film stars Alyssa Lozovskaya, Maksim Blinov, Vladimir Koshevoy.
A mix of drama with science-fiction elements, the film becomes something of an apocalyptic dystopia as it takes us into the near future and tells the true story of the world's first seed bank, the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, during the Siege of Leningrad. It was here that scientists preserved a massive inventory of edible seeds in the name of biodiversity while facing starvation.
Aside from shining a light on seed banks and genetic diversity, it tells us also about growth and decay, love and war, and what it means to be human, even when all your humanity has been stripped away.