Children of the State

Category |Current Affairs, Human Interest, Investigative Journalism, Justice, Politics
Year | 2014
Country | Russia/Spain
Running time | 66'&58'
Format | HD
Production | ARTVIDEO Ltd, ARTVIDEO Studio SSL, Spain
Director | Olga Arlauskas, Nikita Tikhonov-Rau


Each year all over the world the number of families who can't have their biological children is growing. While in Russia there are nearly 500 000 orphans who wait for their chance to find adoptive parents. In Russia the adoption isn’t so popular. The only chance these children had was international adoption.

But December 25, 2012 President Putin has signed Dima Yakovlev’s Bill, banning American and some European citizens from adopting Russian children. Katrina Morris from US was one of those, who couldn’t accomplish the adoption process of Natasha, a five-year old girl with Down syndrome. Among other thousands of Russian orphans Natasha is unlikely to ever be adopted, but Katrina goes on struggling for her.

Russian journalists and social activists Alexander and Julia Kolesnichenko are trying to help her. Will they be able to get Natasha out, struggling face-to-face with the billion-dollars Russian orphanage system and being involved into international political games?

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS : OLGA ARLAUSKAS and NIKITA TIKHONOV-RAU

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OLGA ARLAUSKAS


 Olga Arlauskas, director, producer Member of the Russian Documentary Guild was born in Moscow in 1981.

In 1991 her family moved to Bilbao, Spain. In 2004 she successfully completed her studies at the Faculty of Audiovisual Communication at the University of the Basque Country. In 2004 she was given a grant from Basque government to study filmmaking and moved back to Russia. In 2006 she graduated as a documentary filmmaker from VKSR (Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors).

Since then she’d been working for Channel One Russia, Channel Kultura, Russia Today (Spanish version) and made nearly 20 documentary films from intimate biopics to prime-time TV¬blockbusters.

In 2011 together with Nikita Tikhonov-Rau she founded a production company Artvideo Studio Ltd., based both in Russia and Spain and specializing in current affairs and social issues art¬journalism about Russia.

Selected filmography:

Children of the state (2014)
Straigthening Sigh (2014)
In the image and likeness (2013)
In Aut (2012)
Anatomy of a soul (2012)
The Labels (2011)
To cheat death (2011)
To be together (2009)

MIKITA TIKHONOV-RAU


 Nikita Tikhonov-Rau, Director, producer Member of Russian Documentary Guild, was born in 1980 in Moscow. Born in a family with Russian, German, Polish, Ukranian and Jewish roots, he always wanted to create films on international issues. In 2005 he graduated from Higher Courses of Directors and Screenwriters (Moscow, Russia).

Having worked for 7 years for major Russian TV-channels he created over 30 documentaries, mostly focused on ethical issues of science, art, religion, philosophy and politics. In 2011 with Olga Arlauskas he founded a production company Artvideo Studio Ltd., based in Moscow, Russia and Bilbao, Spain. The company specializes in current affairs and social issues films about Russia.

In 2012 he became the vice-president of The Russian Documentary Guild (www.rgdoc.ru), managing documentary film distribution and building The National DOK-club Network.

Selected filmography:


Children of the State (2014 )
Straightening Sigh (2014)
In the image and likeness (2013)
In Aut (2012)
The crowd power (2012)

The Labels (2011)
To cheat death (2011)
Lev Artsimovich. Prescentiment of the atom. (2009)

Rene Magritte. In search of the meaning of things. (2009)
Astrid Lindgren. A girl inside out. (2008)


 Sergey Lemeshev. The Idol (2007)
A few words about Charles Darwin... (2006)

Tchaikovsky House in Klin. (2005)