Oscilloscope Buys Russian Dash-Cam Documentary ‘The Road Movie’

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Dmitrii Kalashnikov’s Russian dash-cam doc “The Road Movie” and plans a theatrical release later this year, Variety has learned exclusively.

The film premiered at the 2016 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and its North American premiere took place at the True/False Film Festival recently.

“The Road Movie” is a compilation of video footage shot exclusively via dashboard cameras in Russian automobiles, capturing a comet crashing down to Earth, a forest fire, and angry motorists taking road rage to wholly new and unexpected levels. The footage is often accompanied by bemused commentary from unseen and often stoic drivers and passengers.

“It’s fun,” said Oscilloscope chief Dan Berger. “It’s scary. It’s humorous. And there’s a sense of existential dread that pervades the whole thing. Kalashnikov’s ‘The Road Movie’ is truly like nothing you’ve ever seen and thankfully it’s a film, cause it’s definitely nothing you’d ever want to experience in real life.”

Kalashnikov said, “I’ve never even dreamed about my film being distributed in the U.S. Thanks to Syndicado who believed in the film. It’s a great honor for me that ‘The Road Movie’ will be in the company of such great titles that Oscilloscope works with.”

The film was produced by Volia Chajkouskaya from Volia Films and acquired from Toronto-based Syndicado’s new doc sales agency Syndicado Film Sales. The deal was brokered by Aleksandar Govedarica of Syndicado on behalf of the filmmakers.

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