Give Me Liberty

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kirill Mikhanovsky directs. Wyatt Garfield behind the camera. Kirill Mikhanovsky cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Russian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 7 years ago.
• 2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Russian, English.
• 3Directed by Kirill Mikhanovsky, shot by Wyatt Garfield. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Editor Kirill Mikhanovsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Chris Galust and Lauren 'Lolo' Spencer and Maksim Stoyanov carry the top of the cast.
• 6IMDB entry: tt4169146 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 7Only 72 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Wyatt Garfield

Editing

Kirill Mikhanovsky

Production design

Bart Mangrum

Costume design

Kate Grube

Runtime

110 min · 1h 50m

Status

Released

Original language

EN

IMDB

Give Me Liberty (2019) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

89% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

82/100

IMDB rating

6.7/10 · 2,342 votes

US box office

$242,734

Also by

Kirill Mikhanovsky

• 
  Dreaming of Fish

  2006 · ★ 6.8
• 
  Dubrovsky

  2014 · ★ 4.7

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Give Me Liberty - Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• SWITCH.2019-08-03
  ★ 6/10

  ‘Give Me Liberty’ could have been a really powerful film, but due to many lengthy scenes that drain it sadly fails. The cast gives their all, and I hope to see these faces again - I just wish the filmmakers sat in the edit suite a little longer. - Chris dos Santos Read Chris' full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-give-me-liberty-outstanding-performance-lengthily-execution

  Read full review ↓
• badelf2022-03-06
  ★ 9/10

  This movie is absolutely hilarious, completely crazy and incredibly touching. If you're a Hollywood/Oscar aficionado, don't bother - this movie is not for you. The film is a hyperbole of the chaos of life set against the foreground of disability and the background of race riots. In the end, I believed this came from personal experience because no one could make up this kind of stuff. There were so many moments that I was afraid to laugh because I didn't want to miss the next shtick. Because after all, if we don't laugh at life, then we end up crying. In the end, the tenderness of the film brought tears to my eyes anyway.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• GI

  Give Me Liberty Productions

  US

Key crew

• Associate ProducerJessica Knap
• Production ManagerJessica Knap
• ProducerAlice Austen
• Production DesignBart Mangrum
• EditorKirill Mikhanovsky
• SoundJeremy Mazza
• Costume DesignKate Grube
• Art DirectionMoira Tracey
• ProducerSergey Shtern
• ProducerKirill Mikhanovsky
• ProducerGeorge Rush
• ProducerVal Abel
• Executive ProducerBenh Zeitlin
• Executive ProducerRyan Zacarias
• CastingJennifer Venditti
• ProducerWally Hall
• ProducerMichael Manasseri

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• emigrant
• disabled person

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2019-01-24· Sundance
• Premiere2019-06-17· NY Premiere: BAMcinemaFest