Column by Andrey Plakhov about domestic cinematic reality in the mirror of the White Elephant nominations
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This year, experts at the Russian film criticism award “White Elephant” selected nominees not only on the basis of the 2023 screen repertoire, but also took into account the work of the previous year, when the award was not awarded. Among the nominees were, on the one hand, “The Fairy Tale” by Alexander Sokurov, and on the other, the series “The Boy’s Word.”
“Fairy tale” appears in five award categories. The film has even more (seven) “Anna’s Feelings” Anna Melikyan, and the leadership with eight nominations was taken by “Patient No. 1” by Rezo Gigineishvili. This painting also has an unusual fate. Finished much earlier, it received its European festival premiere only two months ago – and was presented as Georgian. Although it was filmed in Russian with Russian actors (Alexander Filippenko, as well as Inna Churikova in her last role) and is a grotesque image of the Soviet era agonizing in senile dementia.
The general impression from the nominees (minus the documentaries, which are a separate discussion): the historical past is becoming the favorite artistic territory of filmmakers. In addition to the above, this trend is confirmed by films “For you and me” Andrey Smirnov, “1993” Alexander Veledinsky and even much more local “One little secret from the night” Natalia Meshchaninova. Feeds on legends of the rock scene of the end of the last century “Year of birth” Mikhail Mestetsky. Another well-developed segment of the screen art industry is regional or “ethnic” cinema: Yakut “Plague” Dmitry Davydov and Chechen “The Cage is Looking for a Bird” Maliki Musaeva, a graduate of Sokurov’s workshop, serve as typical examples of this.
The weakest place and time for cinema is Russia, today.
When there is no historical or ethnic discourse, “naked” modernity appears in a narrow, most often unproblematic version. These are small personal stories or pretentiously metaphorical parables, sometimes one is strainedly combined with the other.
Even more ambitious works such as “Bullfinch” Boris Khlebnikov – lacks great breath. The straitjacket of self-censorship is easily discernible from omissions and ambiguities. And if the authors – like Anna Kuznetsova in “Vacation” – dare to even step on the red line, they immediately receive a stop signal: the winning film of the Mayak festival has not yet been released, and it is not a fact that it will be released at all rental
The word “rental” itself has lost its usual meaning and is no longer associated with “normality”; rather, it is a symbolic sign of legalization. Everyone understands that none of the films listed above will make money at the box office, even if you spend millions on advertising. Internet platforms work much more efficiently, but they, naturally, prefer TV series: it is on them that the masses become addicted and it is there that the energy of filmmakers is gradually pumped.
Among the seven series nominated for the White Elephant, some are decent, some are just good – and there is one that is far removed from the circle of cinematic micro-events. Evaluating “The boy’s word. Blood on the asphalt” from a professional point of view, one can find flaws in the dramaturgy, especially noticeable in the mysteriously and hastily reshot eighth episode, but all this is not so fundamental. The important thing is that the gangster saga from the retro era of Kazan teenage gangs hit the nerve of today’s world order. That the charismatic characters in the series became the idols of the public – from Ivan Yankovsky to comparative newcomers Nikita Kologrivy and Ruzil Minukaev, to practically debutants Leon Kemstach and Anna Peresild. Not just choosing the right casting, but guessing a mass request and adequately responding to it, relying on talent, intelligence, intuition, or all together – this is given to rare directors, of whom Zhora Kryzhovnikov undoubtedly belongs.
It remains to understand what kind of collective request this is and what nerve was touched. It’s funny to read assurances that this is our criminal past, which we suffered from and overcame, and now we are thriving in a healthy society.
The collapse of life attitudes experienced by the heroes in the finale does not at all mean either their awareness of their guilt, or atonement, much less repentance. Having learned nothing but antediluvian masculine morality, the black romantic Adidas passes away; broken by the laws of the pack, Andrei (Palto) conducts a fake boys’ choir of colony prisoners; Marat, who has lost his love, rushes between prison and a dubious Komsomol business career.
It is interesting to see the second season about the “dashing nineties”, but already in the first this ideological myth is questioned. Because it all started much earlier and did not end in the nineties, but continues to this day. And although, as documented information about the fate of the heroes illustrates, they died one after another on the bandit barricades, their incarnations and doubles, their habits and concepts live and conquer; This recognition, reaching the point of self-identification, is the secret of the phenomenal popularity of the series.
In this cinematic game, two trump cards are cleverly played: historical and geographical. Although the filming did not take place in Kazan, the Tatar and Muslim component here is more than ethnic paint; This is another staple of patriarchy, adopted by crime. And the chosen time of action – a spiritual crisis driven underground and a latent thirst for change – clearly rhymes with the present day.
But in addition to these two trump cards, there is a third one – therapeutic, also known as psychoanalytic. For the older generation, the cure is nostalgia for youth, even if it happened at the height of banditry. And for young people, the Wink.ru platform, together with the Outlo brand, released a limited capsule of clothing based on the series. It is no coincidence that its face was Slava Kopeikin, who plays Turbo, the most negative character of the Universam group, an insidious intriguer and guardian of deep morality.
By pressing all the sensitive buttons, leaving everyone alone with their birth traumas and archaic complexes, “The Boy’s Word” heals the inflamed collective resentment, reconciles with grievances and broken dreams.
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