How it all began…

Women’s Day grew out of a short documentary Tractor Drivers and Tiger Tamers, Politicians and Cosmonauts (30 min) created by Dolya Gavanski out of archive footage. This film trilogy is divided into three distinct periods of Soviet history that reflect the changing idea of the ‘perfect woman’ across Soviet times.

The films were part of an exhibition Superwoman: Work, Build and Don’t Whine, developed by Grad Gallery in London in collaboration with Thea Films. Curated by Dr Natalia Murray, Dolya Gavanski and Nadia Plungian, the exhibition presented a fascinating exploration of the iconography of the Soviet woman in propaganda from the October Revolution of 1917 to the fall of the Soviet Union.

The exhibition also included a number of educational projects and discussions.

The exhibition attracted enormous interest from the press - ‘exciting’ ‘marvellous’ ‘remarkable’ -   and was named top cultural event by The Guardian. The films were also shown at the Cultural Institute of Diplomacy in Berlin, the British Library and the Russian Film Festival in London.

“The footage of this film is absolutely marvellous– rare archival material, which is so exciting and beautifully put together in Dolya Gavanski’s remarkable montage.” Maria Shevtsova (Professor of Drama and Theatre Arts, University of London)

“Loved the film – great focus on the history of Russia from the perspective of the  representation of women – fantastic to get a sense of hidden history from the young Night  Witches – female pilots in WW2 to heroic tractor drivers.”  April De Angelis (playwright)

"A fascinating window into the lives of so many feminist pioneers and strong working women, using extraordinary archive footage…The film highlights the discrepancies between the idealised image of women and difficult juggling of roles. This is something we still fight today. If anything, it’s worse."
Phoebe Taplin (journalist and writer)