Form and style of the film

The style of the movie is based on carefully structured juxtapositions of documentary and additional footage (accompanied by voice-over commentary); it will largely cover the same events from different perspectives (the Rashomon effect).

Dostoyevsky Reimagined: The Making of Notes from the New World is composited utilizing the following footage:

Documentary footage

Providing an intimate view of the production of Notes From The New World from the beginning of auditions to the end of post-production. From time to time events were captured by several cameras - up to three – allowing different angles to suggest the variations in perspective involved in a project of this magnitude. The footage also includes interviews with the key players.

Archival footage

Conveying an historical perspective - Dostoyevsky’s influence, his literary discoveries of the polyphonic nature of the human soul, and his prophetic vision of the writer in relation to the future of the world – predicting (in part) the major postmodern peripetias of our time.

Footage from the author's films

Extracts from the movies Notes From The New World (the second chapter of writer/director Vitaly Sumin’s ambitious LA-Dostoevsky Project), Shades of Day (the first chapter), and earlier works by Vitaly Sumin.

Other cinematic adaptations of Dostoyevsky

Selected extracts from other cinematic adaptations of Dostoyevsky, pending written authorizations (several have already been obtained).