It is winter in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the streets of the former capital are teeming. Half naked sunbathers stand in the snow; fledgling dancers watched by throngs of teens are an explosion of underground fashion; a therapist who cannot afford an office sees clients in his car; immigrant street cleaners wander estates in orange vests, hoping they won’t be mistaken for terrorists. St. Petersburg makes do with what it has.
Original title (Danish): De Nøgne fra Sankt Petersborg
Director: Ada Bligaard Søby
Producer: Lise Saxtrup
Scriptwriter: Ada Bligaard Søby
Cinematographers: Max Efros and Ada Bligaard Søby
Editor: Nanna Frank Møller
Produced with support from Danish Film Institute – New Danish Screen, DR and TV2.
Ada Bligaard Søby was born in Denmark in 1975. She moved to New York at age 20 to study at School of Visual Arts, but ended up waitressing in nightclubs instead. Later she assisted fashion photographer Terry Richardson around the time when he was making the ‘Terryworld’ book, and made motorcycle trips around the US with her camera and boyfriend.
She has been a member of the Copenhagen-based filmmaker collective Super 16, and is a self-taught filmmaker and photographer. She has shot documentaries for Nordic and International broadcasters in the US, China, Russia, Singapore, Finland, Germany and England, and has received several working grants from The Danish State Arts Foundation.
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