Film Screening: “Madly in Dissent” (Russian and English)

Directors: Ksenia and Kirill Sakharnov

Czech Republic-Israel, 2023

Filmed by Ksenia and Kirill Sakharnov, the documentary weaves rare archival materials, vivid testimonies, and a sharp visual language, turning Fainberg’s story into a reminder that resistance can begin with a single voice: one that cannot be silenced.

The film is both a tribute to prisoners of conscience in the USSR and in Putin’s Russia, and a powerful expression of solidarity with Ukraine, Fainberg’s birthplace. It portrays dissent as something deeply personal, persistent, and unbreakable, and shows how one voice can become a movement.

The screening is organized by the Nadav Foundation, the Cummings Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University.

The event will also feature works by artist and illustrator Nusya Krasovitskaya, granddaughter of Soviet dissident Natalia Gorbanevskaya, whose drawings accompany the film.

H.E. Ms. Veronika Kuchyňová Šmigolová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Israel;

Prof. Vera Kaplan, Head of the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies, Tel Aviv University;

Dr. Sarah-Masha Fainberg, Head of the Great Powers Research Program, Elrom Center for Air and Space Studies, Tel Aviv University, daughter of Viktor Fainberg.

19:00 – Film screening, followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Ms. Ksenia Sakharnova, and artist-illustrator Ms. Nusya Krasovitskaya.

The event will be held in Russian and English.