Translated material
The union is no help
Union is no help
Despite the crisis, there are still many films and the selection range is wide, there is plenty to choose from for both the curators of Kinotavr and the selectors of the Moscow Festival. However, the next batch of projects will most likely face a sequestration of state funding and, to an even greater extent, the reluctance of private investors to take risks. There is only one way out of the situation: again cling to the state pocket. And he not only moderates generosity, but also increases the demands for ideological bestowal. Today, the connection between the realities of modern Russian life and cinema is rather indirect. Of the five contenders for the main Nika award, three are retro films: Paper Soldier by A. German Jr., Stilyagi by V. Todorovsky and The Vanished Empire by K. Shakhnazarov. Another one - "The Wild Field" by M. Kalatozishvili - was filmed in the genre of a parable according to a script written in the 90s. “The Captive” by A. Uchitel is also based on a ten-year-old story, and this is the only film that, at least in a generalized poetic form, touches on the sore Chechen topic.
The sharpest and most shocking of the latest films is called "Russia 88" and filmed by a young director P. Bardin. Its theme - rampant skinheads and neo-fascists in our cities - is solved in the form of a mocumentary¹, that is, stylized as a documentary. It would seem that the authorities, who themselves talk about the danger of extremism, should seize on this film and open the green light for it. However, apparently, those at the top did not like the hints that the national chauvinists are often covered by the same power structures that patronize Nashi. The film, which had already been at the Berlinale and was awarded the special prize of the Spirit of Fire festival in Khanty-Mansiysk, waited longer than usual for a distribution certificate: all this time, rumors about a ban were being pumped up and multiplying. Permission is nevertheless received, but there are no guarantees that one of the distributors will seriously deal with the picture.
The specter of state orders and other forms of censorship hangs over the cinema most clearly in the last twenty years. And with him another - the ghost of a small picture. Being a product of Stalin's times, this phenomenon remained in the memory of half a century ago as ideological insanity, when in a vast country with a film studio in each republic there were no films made (for example, in 1951 - only 9), but each one had to be a masterpiece. A limited number of "masterpieces" are much easier to keep under control than a large, motley film industry. That is why the danger is so great that the economic decline of film production in Russia may coincide with the strengthening of ideological control.
The Union of Cinematographers, which in 1986 led by Elem Klimov, was at the forefront of perestroika could resist him. Over the past years, the place of the "general from the cinema" was taken by Nikita Mikhalkov, who spoke at the V Congress in defense of Sergei Bondarchuk from fair criticism. Now, at the 7th Congress, Marlen Khutsiev was elected head of the Union, but the court and the Ministry of Justice do not recognize his legitimacy, and in the last days of March another, extraordinary congress is being held. It would be logical if Fedor Bondarchuk speaks in defense of Nikita Mikhalkov. History repeats itself, but in a more grotesque way. Whatever the outcome of the confrontation, one cannot expect much help from the split Union from the film process.
1 From English. to mock - "fake" and documentary - "documentary".