Born in Novosibirsk in 1984, Alexander Abaturov graduated from Gorky University in Ekaterinburg. After working as a journalist for the Federal press agency, he moved to France to obtain Master’s degree in creative documentary filmmaking from the Lussac documentary school. His graduation film, Kinophasie (2011), was selected for screening at several festivals. Alexander’s first feature-length documentary Sleeping Souls (2013) was screened at many international film festivals, such as Cinéma du ré