Look at me… Yes, yes, I mean you… Look at me more closely… Do you like me? Do you feel my grace, my delicate charm, my impetuous joie de vivre? Do you find my unearthly beauty exciting? My inner glow? What are you staring at? You don’t seem to realise who you’re dealing with… A car…? The hell I don’t! Car – that word means nothing! It doesn’t suit me at all. And that’s what I want to talk to you about… I see arrogance in your eyes… All right, you say you’ve seen better cars… Is that what you really think? As far as the mechanics are concerned, there are undoubtedly more refined constructions, more impressive proportions and more elegant shapes. But what is mechanics compared to my purpose?

Excuse me, since you obviously don’t understand, I have to express myself in a somewhat turgid manner. Oh no, I’m just excited. I’d like to tell you my secrets and I’m starting to talk like an idiot, when I’m completely priceless anyway. There you go, I’m glad, you’re laughing. Yet my wings are more than just wings, and my headlights shine brighter than the stars. Do you finally understand that I am a historical paradox, an ideological mental exercise. In Russia, not only is the poet “more than a poet”, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko once said. In Russia, the car is also more than just a car. It is an animate being. I am a fetish. To buy me, in Soviet times, it was not enough to have money. I was allotted, and only to the best, awarded like a medal and presented like a precious piece of jewellery. I think back nostalgically to those days. No, I’m not a communist, but I was a queen then, and later, when masses of limousines for gangsters came into the country, when everything became possible, of course I lost a little. But I didn’t surrender. Not until today.

Direction: Andreas Maus
Book: Andreas Maus, Gunter Hanfgarn
Camera: Eugen Schlegel
Cut: Lena Rem
Music: Verena Guido
Sound: Sergej Marinic
Editorial: Sabine Rollberg
Production management: Andrej Blagodyrenko
Production: Gunter Hanfgarn
Croadcasters: WDR/ARTE
Sponsored by: Medienboard, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Filmfest München, 2009
Cambridge Film Festival (UK), 2009
Docupolis International Documentary Film Festival, Barcelona (Spanien), 2009
Festival des Deutschen Films in Russland, 2009
Tranzyt Festiwal Posnan (Polen), 2009

I have seen many films that are supposed to explain Russia to us from a Western point of view, but this one is the most extraordinary and the best. Russia should also see Ballada.

– Marina Yarushkina, Journalist

Ballada does without tricks and effects, but entertains us with soul and humanity. The literary narrative merges with the lives and stories of the protagonists. This film has rarity value.

– Peter Lilienthal, Director

Ballada takes us on a very personal journey through Russia and its wealth of people and stories. The film starts as a comedy, but by the end it is tightening our throats. An immensely moving work.

– Malcolm Goldstein, Composer