The Revolution That Wasn't – Russian documentaries 1991–2015

The ensemble of these films comes together as an alternative chronicle of recent Russian history in which aspects that rarely come to light in public European discourse are considered: the difficulty of living under the Soviet regime and the will for political change; the painstaking transition to a market economy in the 1990s; the psychological or mental adjustment to the new societal order; the failure of state institutions; the impoverishment of society and the accompanying loss of trust in the country's democratic future. The films reflect historical events at a micro level, in the sense that they focus on individuals. A series of cinematic portraits - partly in essay form, partly in the style of cinéma vérité – emerges that depict for example a Russian citizen in a remote village (BREAD DAY, THE BELOVS, THE MOTHER), an opposition politician (THE TERM) or former Russian President Boris Yeltsin (AN EXAMPLE OF INTONATION) and his successor Vladimir Putin (PUTIN. THE LEAP YEAR) both at the start of their respective periods in office. The films also capture the lack of direction of those in power and the population, who do not know how to deal with the new reality. In this context, the political developments in today's Russia seem to be a consequence of the internal state of a country that has stagnated politically and culturally since the beginning of the Putin era. The lack of new cultural models has prompted a return to old thought and behavioral patterns. The program comprises 21 short, medium-length and feature-length films that have been divided into three categories. The first and most extensive category presents stories from the Russian province. The second focuses on the failure of political transformation: From the 1991 putsch (THE EVENT) to the protests against the Putin regime in 2008 (THE REVOLUTION THAT WASN'T) and 2012 (THE TERM). The third examines the current return of state rhetoric on what was "Soviet" and its heritage in terms of film (FIRST ON THE MOON, REVUE) and form and content (LENINLAND).SOBYTIE (The Event, Sergei Loznitsa, NL/B 2015, 1.4., special guest: Sergei Loznitsa) In his most recent film, Loznitsa uses an approach that he has already tried and tested: He uses archival footage to capture three days in August 1991 in Leningrad during the failed putsch on Gorbachev. He assembles the images chronologically and concentrates on the soundtrack of the original footage, from which he carefully removes all commentary and music. Today this historical event is considered a harbinger of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the population's refusal to continue living under the old regime. But people come across as more lost than prepared for revolution and question the driving forces behind the political changes.PRIMER INTONATSII (An Example of Intonation, Alexander Sokurov, RUS 1991,1. & 5.4., introductory lecture by Georg Witte) Sokurov made his second portrait of Boris Yeltsin in early 1991, not even a year before the official end of the Soviet Union. He refrained from using staged scenes, written dialogue or artificial light. The film seems to emerge casually - during a walk in the forest and at home in Yeltsin's dacha near Moscow where the future president receives the film team wearing old tracksuit bottoms and a cardigan. A normal family evening and an approach to a Russian politician without pathos, pride or ceremony, such as would barely be possible today in light of the standard conventions of the representation of power. PORTRET (Portrait, Sergei Loznitsa, RUS 2002,1.4., Sergei Loznitsa is our guest & 5.4., introductory lecture by Georg Witte) In his fifth documentary about the "periphery and the small town," Loznitsa combines a form of the visual that is reduced to photography with a dense and therefore dominant backdrop of sound. Natural noises and off-camera responses that cannot be assigned seem to be the only references to absent movement. A cinematographic series of paintings emerges: Russian farmers look into the camera that uses long shots, which are always anchored in the respective environment. The figures, who seem to be timeless, remain motionless, with only their simple clothing sometimes fluttering in the wind. Rare pan shots of the fields initially hint at movement but this soon gets lost in the smoke and darkness.ARTEL (Sergei Loznitsa, RUS 2006,2.4., Introduction: Barbara Wurm & 14.4.) Loznitsa continues his observations of the Russian periphery and shoots fishermen in Russia's far north. He concentrates on their working techniques, which have barely changed in decades. The minimalistic landscape, comprising merely of the horizon and the frozen sea, allows the viewer simply to take notice of the fishermens' gestures and their will to survive.CHLEBNY DEN'(Bread Day, Sergei Dvortsevoy, RUS 1998,2.4., Introduction: Barbara Wurm & 14.4.) A day in a remote, abandoned village at the end of the 1990s. Bread is usually delivered on this day, but today the train does not make it to the village so the few elderly inhabitants have to push the wagon themselves. Dvortsevoy films this procedure in one sequence, allowing the viewer to experience it – and daily life in a village marked by the economic crisis of the Yeltsin era and the collapse of Soviet infrastructure – directly.MUZCHINA V DOME ILI GRAZHDANIE CAIN V STRANE BOLSHEVIKOV (Man in the House or Mr. Cain in the Land of Bolsheviks, Vladislav Tarik, RUS 1995,3. & 13.4.) This largely unknown film by a classic director of Soviet documentary is about Kevin Cain, a British national and convinced socialist, who settled down in a village in the Urals at the beginning of the 1990s to lead a life as a farmer and revolutionary. On top of his political activities, in his free time Mr. Cain composed political songs praising socialism on his synthesizer.CHISTYI PONEDELNIK (Pure Monday, Aleksey Solonitsyn, RUS 1992,3. & 13.4.) The chronology of a radical decision: In the period of Soviet stagnation under Brezhnev, the teacher Andrei Mkheidse decides to turn his back on "this world" and to become a priest. Persecution and punishment by the system soon follow: He is evicted from his apartment and arrested, while his wife is forced into a psychiatric ward. The excessive nature of the repression only becomes clear when we follow the priest into the penal colonies of eastern Siberia at the beginning of the 1990s and witness his encounters with lifers. This is a film about determination, but also about the lack of direction in the socialist system and its amorphous attempts at transformation, as well as about the return to religion, which today is being increasingly instrumentalized by the state. BELOVY (The Belovs, Viktor Kossakovsky, RUS 1992,15. & 17.4., Introduction: Bert Rebhandl) An initially meditative, meandering observation of two older siblings at the beginning of the 1990s in the Russian province. In seemingly casual fashion, the film unfolds its opening slogan: "Leave each other in peace. Let human beings develop in a natural way." This is a film about a brother and sister and their close proximity with animals and about a small community and a big external world, which appears a long way off. But the invisible external world occupies the siblings increasingly and they end up in an argument. Their peace comes to an end.YA VAS LUBIL …DETSKIY SAD (I Loved You… Kindergarden, Viktor Kossakovsky, RUS 2000,15. & 17.4., Introduction: Bert Rebhandl) The last part of Viktor Kossakovsky's trilogy on love at different ages, is about first love in a kindergarden. Adopting the style of a home video, the director draws closer to the film's two protagonists - Sasha and Katya - and depicts a world that is barely inferior to that of adults in terms of relationship drama and maturity.YA ZABUDU ETOT DEN' (I Will Forget This Day, Alina Rudnitskaya, RUS 2010, 15. & 18.4.) This short film concentrates on the feelings of women before an abortion. The personal and political circumstances of the respective decisions  to have an abortion are barely mentioned, there are no interviews and hardly any dialogue. The camera records the happenings from a distance and focuses on the women's faces to get closer to the situation of the protagonists. MAT'(Mother, Antoine Cattin, Pavel Kostomarov, RUS/CH 2008,15.4., Antoine Cattin is our guest & 18.4.) The directors Kostomarov (Russia) and Cattin (Switzerland) dare approach the theme of "Motherhood" and turn Lyuba, a single mother in a village in Novgorod Oblast, into the protagonist of their third joint film. Despite financial problems and an unhappy marriage, Lyuba has fulfilled her desire for children and fled her alcoholic husband with her nine children. Her self-sacrifice for her children evokes the archetypal mother figure in which religious notions combine with the socialist gender model of the "working mother". The film depicts the failure of this role model: the bitterly poor village community can offer neither Lyuba nor her children prospects for the future. GRAZHDANSKOE SOSTOYANIE (Civil State, Alina Rudnitskaya, RUS 2005,22.4., Introduction: Ekaterina Tewes 27.4.) The upbeat beginning is deceptive: Newly-weds, flowers, bubbly and smashed glasses give way to the bureaucratic everyday of a government agency. Marriage, divorce and death. And also forms, approvals and missing stamps. The camera succeeds in remaining unnoticed and directly capturing the faces, fates, joy, desperation, guile, anger and intimate details of the protagonists. The director manages to create a closeness and at the same time maintains a distance; she does not descend into pathos or melodrama, nor is she critical of society or indifferent.DEVOCHKI (Girls, Valeriya Gai Germanika, RUS 2005,22.4., introductory lecture by Ekaterina Tewes 27.4.) A few summer's days in the life of three Moscow girls on the cusp of adulthood. Saying farewell to childhood in the schoolyard and in the corridors of the apartments in a Moscow suburb, from secretly bought cigarettes and gin and tonics, to first love and the delivery of a passport. The director, who later enjoyed great success in Cannes with her feature film "Everybody Dies But Me" (2008), was only 19 when she made her documentary debut. Her emotional closeness and sympathy with the three main protagonists lend her film authenticity and honesty. PUTIN. VISOKOSNYI GOD (Putin. The Leap Year, Vitaly Mansky, RUS 2001,16. & 30.4.) The first documentary portrait of the Russian president by an independent Russian director. Mansky observes the future president’s daily life from the time when Boris Yeltsin appointed him acting president until he won the presidential elections of 2000. The film is based on the filmmaker's talks with Putin the politician but also gives an insight into his private life –when he meets his former German teacher for instance or drinks tea in his residence near Moscow. Mansky also manages to capture moments of uncertainty and uncontrolled outbursts.SROK (The Term, Pavel Kostomarov, Alexey Pivovarov, Alexander Rastorguev, RUS/EST 2014,16.4., Antoine Cattin is our guest & 30.4.) The original goal of a project that began as a video blog was to portray the protagonists of the opposition movement after Putin's re-election as president. The title refers to Putin's third term (Russ.: srok) but also to the risky situation of the opposition that had to reckon with detention and prison sentences (Russ.: srok). The everyday, private, comical and sometimes even romantic scenes with the protagonists are juxtaposed with state television footage and scenes of the political struggle. The "Srok"project was not without consequence for the three directors: Pavel Kostomorov was interrogated at the end of 2014 and thus the filmmakers became part of the political events and put an end to their project.REVOLUTSIYA, KOTOROI NE BYLO (The Revolution That Wasn't, Aliona Polunina, EST/FIN/RUS 2008,19.4., Aliona Polunina is our guest, Introduction: Tatiana Kirianova & 22.4.) One of the best films about the political opposition in Russia of the 2000s, the director's award-winning debut depicts the supporters of the far-left National Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Eduard Limonov. Anatoly Tishin, the party's deputy leader and his son Grigori, who got involved with party activities at the age of 14, provide the film's focus. Without passing judgment on her protagonists, Polunina provides a deep insight not only into the two Tishins but the whole movement, which came to an official end when the party was disbanded in 2010.LADNO, KHOROSHO (Ok, Good, Anna Kornienko, Alexandra Kulak, RUS 2015, 21. & 29.4.) is a short made by two young Moscow-based filmmakers who had already made a name for themselves with commercial music videos for international bands. Without going into the daily life of the village, the film shows Russian babushkas who perform their songs in the countryside. The filmmakers are less driven by a critical stance than by a great sympathy for their protagonists. The desert-like village landscape and the sound of folksongs come together in an odd way to portray an archaic, fragile world. ZVIZZHI (Zvizzhi, Olga Privolnova, RUS 2014,21. & 29.4.) The village of Zvizzhi is situated not far from Kaluga and is most known for the annual architecture festival "Archstoyanie" that draws hordes of Muscovite hipsters. Their presence does not seem to have a great impact on the local population, which is largely unemployed. With her camera, the director, who studied at the renowned Marina Razbezhkina School of Documentary Films and Theatre, accompanies the Russian underclass in the style of Direct Cinema.LENINLAND (Leninland, Askold Kurov, RUS 2013,23.4., Askold Kurov is our guest & 28.4., introductory lecture by Aleida Assmann) After years of construction and right in the midst of perestroika in 1987, the biggest and so far last museum dedicated to Lenin finally opened in Gorki, not far from Moscow. Just a few years later, the Soviet Union had collapsed and the museum had descended into oblivion. With plenty of humor and irony, Kurov captures everyday life today in a place that has become a refuge for odd creatures. The few visitors are mostly Chinese tourists or supporters of the All-Russian Communist Party, Ukrainian pioneers and Russian police officers. According to Kurov, LENINLAND is not a political film but his attempt to establish a relationship with the historical figure of Lenin. PERVYE NA LUNE (First on the Moon, Alexei Fedorchenko, RUS 2005,28.4.) adopts a particular documentary form. We find out about the first manned mission to the moon by Soviet cosmonauts. The director who spent many years working at Sverdlovsk Film Studio skillfully combines archive material with his own footage. He reproduces the event using film genres that were prevalent at the time, such as newsreels or public information films. Reality was already invented and aestheticized in the early Soviet era. Decades later the perfectionist Fedorchenko imitates the imitation. In light of the film's metafilmic impact, the question of its veracity is not even posed. The era's atmosphere is reproduced meticulously and convincingly.PREDSTAVLENIE (Revue, Sergei Loznitsa, RUS/NL/G 2008, 27.& 29.4.) Sergei Loznitsa's second multiple award-winning film uses Soviet newsreels from the 1950s and 1960s. The director takes footage depicting daily life and leaves it unchanged. However, he does edit out the commentary and music to remove their messages of "propaganda". Assembling them chronologically, he shows the impact of the political changes of the time on visual politics. With the liberalization of Soviet society after Stalin's death in the mid-1950s, the intonation of the chronicles become milder and "more human". The Russian title, which can be translated as "notion"or "imagination"offers two ways of reading the film: It can be understand as an inner view, an attempt to "re-humanize" the Soviet subject, or as the indictment of a magnificently staged spectacle.(tk)The program was made possible thanks to support from the Capital Cultural Fund and was curated by Tatiana Kirianova. Thanks to Michael Baute, Andreas Fertig and Anastasia Lobanova (Cinedoc).