The film documents the battle waged between the two ideological blocs in the field of “exhibition diplomacy” and gives an insight into the unwritten history of Soviet soft power and socialist internationalism. It compares the forgotten archival materials left behind in Europe from the Soviet photographic exhibitions and films with the American Family of Man exhibition, on display today at Luxembourg’s Clervaux Castle and included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Image Diplomacy deals with history and the materials from which it is made. Dedicated to the re-composition of facts and narratives considered obsolete or forgotten, it ruminates over the question: Why do we look at the past?

The film is set inside the archive of Association Italy Russia (ex-friendship society Italy-USSR) in Milan, at the Film Archive in Bologna, and inside the reconstruction of UNESCO recognised photographic exhibition The Family of Man.