Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
The film, based on shostakovich's memoirs, as related to and edited by his colleague, Solomon Volkov, is not just the story of a composer. In fact, the musical aspect of his life is only the sub-plot to a far greater drama, the relatioship between Shostakovich and Stalin. Testimony is about Russia during the reign of Stalin. While politicians, generals, peasants, poets, Church leades were being purged and destroyed -in all, some 31 million of them- Shostakovich somehow survived. How? Why? At what cost, personal as well as public?