The New Yorker has acquired the Alexander Molochnikov-directed live action short film Extremist. The short, which premiered at Telluride, will debut this week.
Extremist is inspired by the true story of Sasha Skochilenko, a Russian artist and musician who was arrested and imprisoned for seven years for replacing four price tags with anti-war messages. It explores the personal cost of dissent expressed on a sticker in a time of rising censorship and authoritarianism.
Extremist is a recipient of the National Board of Review’s 2025 NBR Student Grant. Jean Chapiro, FormaProFilm are the film’s producers. Pic stars Viktoria Moroshnichenko, Tinatin Dalakishvili, Lilian Malkina, and Arthur Smolyaninov.
Paul Moakley, who is executive producer of video at The New Yorker, called the film “a prescient warning about the rising tide of authoritarianism, not only in Russia but around the world.”
The exec producers include Ben Stiller, John Lesher, Ramin Bahrani, Odessa Rae, Rick Schwartz and Sherylk Crown.
Pic continues to play the film festival circuit, and is campaigning in the Oscar race. Molochnikov is the former Bolshoi opera and ballet director until he spoke out against the Russian war on Ukraine in 2022. Forced from his position as director of a major Bolshoi Theatre play and eventually fled his home city Saint Petersburg (also the home town of Russian leader Vladimir Putin) for the United States.
“To me Sasha Skochilenko is a hero of our time,” said Molochnikov. “It’s not just that Sasha changed price tags, but that when the entire power of the machine of the unjust Russian “justice” system came down upon her, she did not break.”
He continued: “Our film is inspired by this small story within a huge catastrophe of the Russian war in Ukraine. It explores the boundary between the real and the ephemeral, in the consciousness of an artist who is in ultra-stressful circumstances. This is the story of all those who have lived and continue to live in Russia, disagreeing with its policies. Of course, this message is not only for Russians and about Russians; it is a story that could become an American one tomorrow. Back in 2012, we in Russia thought we were living in a fairly European, at times democratic country. Authoritarian power comes subtly. One can miss the moment when the choice is before you: to compromise or to stick to your principles. People like Sasha prove that this choice is always there.”
Said Stiller and Lesher: ”Alexander’s stunning film Extremist is a riveting, cinematic experience that immerses us in the tragedy of anti-war art and activism in Russia where the human right to free speech comes into conflict with an authoritarian system that is tightening its vice. We strongly believe that people around the world need to see this film.”
