A camera glides through a deserted Russian villa that once belonged to the poet Maximilian Voloshin (1877-1932). Here, he and his circle laid siege to the new century before "reality became hostile." Also in this house, the mysterious poet Cherubina de Gabriac was conceived as a joke-only to take St. Petersburg by storm. Director Osipov has found a perfect form for historical reenactment: actors are only voices from the past. Elegiac and experimental, with sly humor and unfeigned tragedy, the film uses portraits and fragments of old films as portals to Russia's cultural heyday and the people who strove to make a work of art out of their life. Shown with: Silence (Orly Yadin, Sylvie Bringas, U.K., 1998, 15 mins): a Holocaust victim speaks out via animation. Harbor (Audrius Stonys, Lithuania, 1998, 10 mins): A poetic impression of a sanitorium's tranquility.-Judy Bloch