In 2004, Dutch documentary director Ben van Lieshout made an extensive film portrait of Tatyana Yassievich and her work in St. Petersburg, Amsterdam and Berlin. The film follows her as she travels between the cities, between the past and future, in a ceaseless effort to register what remains of Soviet esthetics in the public space, before it disappears entirely. The film takes viewers into public spaces still pervaded by the history of the Soviet era. They combine with Yassievich’s personal memories to create a tangible experience of the drastic, ongoing changes set in motion by the recent collapse of the Soviet Union.

The film is based on the Russian folk story ›Kolobok‹, about a roll that runs away to keep from being eaten. In the film, the forest has been replaced with the Soviet subway, where the animals all have menial jobs. The concept art, storyboards and backgrounds developed the style of all of the environments and settings in the film. All of these were executed in ink and watercolor, full-sized renderings. In addition, a complete, start-to-finish color design was created in advance to make a perfect match between digitally created elements and hand-created elements. The film won a prize for Best Debut Film at the Message to Man Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2003, and the Grand Prix at the International Animation Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2004. Tatyana Yassievich did art direction, color design, and more than 700 background paintings for this film.