Russian filmmaker Roman โRomaโ Liberov had long been fascinated by writers who fled his country after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He never imagined that he would one day become an exile himself.
In January 2021, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Liberov left Russia because of a powerful conviction that its people had become โhostages of the stateโ and that a long-simmering conflict with Ukraine would erupt into full-scale war.
Thirteen months later, his fears became reality when Russia invaded its neighbour.
In 2023, he was designated a โforeign agentโ, making it very risky to return. Yet even now, he says he suffers doubts, and wonders whether he should have stayed.
Despite throwing himself into projects in his adopted home of Britain, he worries that by choosing to leave, he cut himself off from mainstream Russian culture.