Generation Putin is an online video-series about ambitious young Russians living in six different Russian cities. For this series Daan teamed up with Dutch Russia-correspondent Tom Vennink and travelled in Russia for a month.
Daan directed, shot and edited the series. It was made for online publication by The Volkskrant, one of the leading newspapers in The Netherlands.
VOLGOGRAD Nastja (22) is part of a group that digs for the remains of soldiers who died in WW2. The battle in Stalingrad (now Volgograd) was the bloodiest in human history: About 1,5 million soldiers died and many were never found.
ROSTOV-ON-DON During the World Cup the city of Rostov-On-Don is being patrolled by patriotic Cossacks. Dmitri (29) is one of their leaders. Who are the Cossacks?
SAMARA In the dense forests in Russia many people get lost, some are never found. The police doesn’t have the manpower to search for them. Natalja (33) is volunteer at LizaAlert, an organisation that tracks down missing people.
MOSCOW – Many people don’t have a positive image of Russia and it’s capital Moscow, but according to Maxim (28) the city of Moscow is hip and happening. He is an entrepreneur and sells costume-made aprons to restaurants and bars. He shows us his Moscow.
KAZAN – Russia has hundreds of ethnic minorities, many have their own Republics within the Russian Federation. But the Kremlin tries to centralise the country more and more, for instance by banning local languages in school. Ajrat (35) is a ethnic Tatar living in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. He fights for keeping the Tater language alive.
YEKATERINBURG Russians have a reputation for being thrill seekers. In Yekaterinburg a television tower of 220 meter was regularly being climbed by teenagers. Reportedly forty people died over the years until the city government teared it down. Danil (23) and Katja (33) are vloggers and both climbed this ‘tower of death’.
Daan Wallis 