Excerpts from Morning Without Evening

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

There will be no solution to any social, economic, political, or philosophical problem, before the problem of death is solved, claimed the Russian philosopher and librarian Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1827-1903). Fedorov was deeply distressed by the development of modern militarism, which had returned the human race back to that condition, in which it was at the most primitive of times. He suggested to convert instruments of destruction into instruments of salvation. In Fedorov’s utopia there would be neither birth nor death but a gradual restoration of life to all— literally all—who had ever lived. In this new world, there would be „spring without fall, morning without evening, youth without old age, resurrection without death.“

His ideas resonated widely among artists and intellectuals. “Seldom have I encountered any argument more logical than Fedorov’s”, wrote Dostoevsky in response to a manuscript Fedorov had sent to his periodical ‘A Writer’s Diary’. Tolstoy considered himself fortunate to have lived in the same century as Fedorov.

In Morning without Evening, Fedorov’s utopian ideas are seen in context with nineteenth-century Russia, where the political leadership governed their subjects with relentless brutality, and revolutionary groups, influenced by anarchism and utopian socialism, were fighting for freedom, equality and the overthrow of the autocracy. In the Russian culture, maybe more than in other cultures, there has been an emphasis on thought as a call for action. What is to be done ?, or Chto delat? was the telling title of Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s novel from 1863 – a title that Lenin borrowed for his famous pamphlet from 1902. Everything was possible. One could always turn 180 degrees around in order to realize a new utopia. If utopianism no longer is a vibrant element in the Russian culture, the authoritarian structures and the brutal exercise of power still are.

The images used in the film reflect the ideas and visions of that time: Russian Orthodox icons of death and resurrection, graphic illustrations of political events in 19th-century Moscow, sketches made by Fedorov and his contemporaries of space travel, and early constructivist propaganda posters.

The animations are made by the Tehran-based animation studio Raiavin Studio, and are free interpretations of the provided text material.

The voice-over is by Kate Pendry. The church choir in the Arkhangel Mikhail Church in Moscow sings the funeral songs and the Iranian composer Milad Movahedi has composed the music.