With the support of the NADAV Foundation, the film “Notes of a Cosmopolite” was released in 2022, in which the famous Russian satirist and publicist Viktor Shenderovich talks about self-determination and his Jewishness, recalling the funny and tragic stories of his grandmothers and acquaintances. The joint work of the writer and producer Tatyana Kisilevsky (TV) was made after the return of the film’s hero to Israel. Shenderovich says of the film, “This is a description of my personal journey — from a Soviet boy who lowered his voice at the word “Jew”, from a young man who saw no difference between Abraham and Isaac — to a Russian publicist who was repeatedly branded by his own Jewishness, and an Israeli citizen who has remained a staunch cosmopolite. Plots from the recent history of the Jewish people — a view from the exile of a man who had no idea he was even from exile…”.
The film is based on the collected stories of the writer “Raisins from a loaf”. The interview film was shot entirely at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, among the exhibits, and in a way, the director jokes, Victor himself became one of them. When asked how it feels to be a living exhibit of Jewish history, Shenderovich replied, “I am in good company there, frankly!”