Vysotsky: Thank You For Being Alive

Vysotsky: Thank You for Being Alive (2011) is a Russian biographical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Pyotr Buslov and produced by the poet's own son, Nikita Vysotsky — which gives it the weight of a family testimony rather than a studio biography.

The film does not cover an entire life. It takes a few days in 1979, when Vladimir Vysotsky collapses during a concert tour in Uzbekistan and is clinically dead for several minutes. Around him: his lover Tanya (Oksana Akinshina), a KGB officer who has been shadowing him for months (Andrei Smolyakov), and a devoted tour manager played by Ivan Urgant. Sergei Bezrukov plays Vysotsky beneath several hours of prosthetic makeup — his own face is never visible. One year before Vysotsky's actual death, the film asks what it costs to keep performing when your heart is already giving out.

Andrei Panin, Vladimir Menshov and Vladimir Ilyun complete a strong supporting cast. Stream Vysotsky: Thank You for Being Alive (2011) online on iFILM.