Iconoscope

The history of television from birth to death…

They say that the average earthling spends about 10 years of his life watching television. There is no point in wondering whether these are lost years; without TV it is impossible to imagine our civilization. Although not even 100 years have passed since its invention...

How did this global absorption of planet Earth and its inhabitants by television happen in such a short period on a historical scale? To what extent does it reflect social complexes, prejudices, and expectations? To what extent is it a mirror of social psychology? Is the phenomenon of TV connected with the phenomenon of faith? Has it become something of a twentieth-century religion? Why did Zvorykin, the inventor of TV, give his invention the name “Iconoscope” and why was he right? What kind of TV did the tyrants Hitler and Stalin have in mind? What role did it play in the fate of Johnson, Kennedy, Nixon, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Reagan, Berlusconi, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin? And what role does it play in the lives of each of us? The film tries to answer all these questions.

But TV is not the only protagonist. There are two more characters in the film, two antipodes, two TV stars. Two people who have lived their entire lives “on TV” and have now become TV viewers. Dan Rather and Igor Kirillov. For residents of the USA and the Soviet Union, these names are directly associated with TV. The iconic figure of American news broadcasts, who maintained his role as the voice of news for 50 years and even dared to suggest to presidents that they should consider resigning. And the symbol of Central Television, the mouthpiece of Soviet officialdom and the face of the Soviet lifestyle.

“Iconoscope” is a chance to explore the entire history of TV in 100 minutes of exciting and paradoxical spectacle.