It was the first review of her film, and quite possibly the only one.” An excerpt fr...

“It was the first review of her film, and quite possibly the only one.” An excerpt from Svetlana Sachkova’s novel “The Undead.” About a female director who ends up in court because she decided to make a film about zombie Lenin

The American publishing house Melville House has released journalist and writer Svetlana Sachkova’s “The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia.” Its main heroine lives and works in Moscow in the 2010s, where she is making a horror film about Vladimir Lenin rising from the dead and leading an army of zombies. Someone informs on her, accusing her of extremism, even though she herself had tried to stay “outside politics.”

With the publisher’s permission, Meduza is publishing an excerpt from the novel in which a court-appointed expert reads out his opinion on the film. At Meduza’s request, the excerpt was translated by Svetlana Sachkova herself.

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“The Undead” is Svetlana Sachkova’s novel about a Russian female director being tried over a film about zombie Lenin

In 2026, the American publishing house Melville House published journalist and writer Svetlana Sachkova’s novel “The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia” (The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia). Its events unfold in Moscow in the late 2010s. The main heroine…