Finish the year off right

A hand-selected list of 2019’s best Russian movies, music, and TV

Movies

Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov

This is, in every sense, an atypical film. Its director, who studied under Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark, Faust) and now collaborates with producer Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad, Leviathan, Loveless), is only 28 years old. This year, he followed up his successful debut, Closeness, with this highly color-saturated drama about a complex relationship between two women following the siege of Leningrad. The result blew away critics and Cannes festival judges alike (the film earned two prizes in its Cannes category, including best director) with its distinctive cinematic language, its depth, and the complexity of the problems it explores. Russia’s Oscar committee selected Beanpole for consideration in the U.S.’s Academy Awards; there were simply no other heavyweight contenders in Russia this year. The Russian film community was especially pleased when Beanpole made the Academy’s top-10 shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film award.

Fidelity

Nigina Saifullayeva

With its unprecedented frankness (at least as far as Russian cinema goes), this drama about a young woman who believes her husband is cheating on her and takes revenge with her own infidelities became a unique kind of sensation at the Kinotavr film festival. Respected Russian critics privately traded barbs about the film’s creators, accusing them and their protagonist of spurning morality. Meanwhile, the festival’s jury gave Fidelity a prize for the dubious distinction of “the infinite faith of its actors in its director.” In actuality, this film by the 34-year-old duo of screenwriter Lyubov Mulmenko and director Nigina Saifullayeva (What’s My Name) breaks a number of unspoken taboos, if only by exploring the omnipresent motif of female infidelity through the perspectives of women themselves. It is clear that these women find more value and interest in their own bodies and their own fates in life than in the approval of men.

Critical disapproval aside, viewers embraced Fidelity at the box office: The film garnered an unimaginable 100 million rubles ($1.6 million) domestically, an unprecedented sum for an independent film intended for festival showings that features no established Russian movie stars and carries an age limit of 18+.

TV

Terrible Teens

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This latest attempt by a Russian TV show to speak to the nation’s young people in their own language actually does a completely satisfactory job. The story told by Trudnye Podrostki, which can be translated literally as Difficult Adolescents or idiomatically as Terrible Teens, is much like its characters: They are all inconstant and inconsistent, hurtful and hotheaded, ridden with psychological complexes and simultaneously uninhibited. Available online for free, this tale of difficult children from an alternative school and their brawling ringleader from Russia’s national soccer team is a wild ride to watch.

Music

The beats of a country in protest

In 2019, there was hardly a single Russian rap star who didn’t speak out on the political events roiling the country. Oxxxymiron released a collaboration with “Moscow case” defendant Samariddin Radzhabov while the latter was still in a pretrial detention center, Husky wrote a track for Vladimir Putin’s birthday, and Kasta went so far as to compose a new Russian “national anthem.” The rapper Face, a frequent presence at protest marches, found a home for his thoughts on censorship and free speech in the film soundtrack for The Humorist, and Noize struck the most piercing political note of all in his loose adaptation of Yegor Letov’s “Vsyo Kak U Lyudey,” a phrase that translates poorly as “Just Like Everybody’s Got.” Our critics compiled a playlist that captures some of those winds of change.

Russia’s queens of pop

Leaving aside “Old Town Road” and the sudden rise of Belarusian artist Tima Belorusskikh, women continued to dominate pop music in Russia in 2019, as they had the year before. Of course, they were led by teen star Billie Eilish, who may not be from Russia but nonetheless topped every possible chart there by a significant margin. Russian critics also fell in love with Lizzo’s album Cuz I Love You and latched onto King Princess’s release Cheap Queen. Among Russian artists, women’s voices drew renewed interest to the successful indie band Samoye Bolshoye Prostoye Chislo (“The Largest Prime Number”), the debut duo Tripinadva put their name on the map, and 21-year-old Internet sensation Monetochka continued to delight millions of fans. This playlist unites these artists and others to immerse you in the women’s voices resonating through Russia without taking you far from familiar global hits.

Rocking on

As the 1990s have come right back into fashion in Russia, so has guitar-led rock. The undisputed leaders of that triumphant return have been the heroes of the much-discussed Bol’ (Pain) Festival, the St. Petersburg-based band Shortparis. Nonetheless, it was the Belarusian rock band Petli Pristrastia that released the best rock album of the year, Gul (Roar). Among younger Russian artists, this year’s standouts included Hadn Dadn, Pasosh, Intourist, and Noteberd. Meanwhile, Western bands from Fontaines D.C., Black Midi, and Big Thief to classics like Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver, and Iggy Pop found their way into Russian audiences’ earbuds. This playlist represents that broad range of experiences and styles.

Lists by Anton Dolin, Alexander Filimonov, and Yegor Moskvitin

English version by Hilah Kohen