Walks with Brodsky

Walks with Brodsky (Прогулки с Бродским, 1994) — watch online on iFILM — is an 81-minute documentary directed by Elena Yakovich and Aleksey Shishov. Venice, 1993: Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky and his longtime poet friend Yevgeny Rein walk the embankments, sit in cafes, and read their verse.

The conversation moves from poetry and language to Venice itself — a city Brodsky revered and later wrote about in his prose work Watermark — and then to Russia, the future, and cats. No script, no agenda. The camera follows without pressing. Brodsky died two years after filming.

Documentaries about poets often ask them to explain themselves. This one lets Brodsky simply exist in a city he loved, which turns out to be a better portrait than any interview could manage. Watch Walks with Brodsky (1994) online on iFILM.