Gagarin's Pioneers (2006)

Run Time - 101 min.  |   Countries - Germany, Russia  |  
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

In 1973, Vitaly Mansky was ten years old and living in Lvov, a city in the Ukraine where he had been born. Like many Russian and Ukrainian children his age, Mansky was a member of "the Young Pioneers," a Soviet youth organization that was designed to promote patriotism and community service, though in practice it resembled the Cub Scouts more than anything else. In 2005, Mansky found an old photo of himself and his fellow members of "Group Yuri Gagarin" (his Young Pioneers chapter, named for the celebrated Soviet cosmonaut), and wondered what became of his childhood friends. Mansky's curiosity evolved into a documentary, Nasha Rodina, in which he tracks down most of his pals from the Young Pioneers, and finds them scattered all over the world, from Israel to North America. As Mansky and his friends catch up, they talk about where the fates have taken them and what the once important notion of "homeland" has come to mean to them today. Nasha Rodina (aka Gagarin's Pioneers) was screened in competition at the 2006 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.