How to become a silent movie Star with Teona Dolnikova

I spent my holidays 2017 in Moscow, the city where I grew up. While I was there, I went to see the 3D theater production Pola Negri, based on the life of one of Hollywood's silent film stars of the early twentieth century. And guess what? The role of Pola Negri is played by my sister, Teona Dolnikova.

After the performance, we went backstage—a magical place filled with props, costumes, and remnants of countless other productions. The venue itself, the Theatre of the Russian Army, is an extraordinary building commissioned during Stalin's era and surrounded by countless stories and legends of its own.

In this video, my sister and I talk about the differences between acting in silent films and contemporary theater. How do you convey emotions and tell a story when your voice is no longer your primary instrument? What remains are movement, gesture, and the expressive power of the body.

At the beginning and end of the video, you can hear us singing Batonebo, an old Georgian chant that accompanied our childhood. Singing it in a place like this, with its remarkable natural reverberation, felt truly magical.