Cops in Berlin

The Berlin Film Festival, which ended on Sunday, intends to support only those films from Russia that are distinguished by a tough social orientation and openly criticize reality. It became completely clear. It's not that the festival deliberately selects only anti-Putin films - although anti-Putin slogans flashed on the Berlin screen. But anyhow, what kind of film from Russia Berlin does not need. Anyhow what they can take from some thirtieth country for the sake of geographical diversity. But Russia is a country with a very specific role in the modern world. And from the Russian cinema, Berlin wants a tough social statement.
But until recently, Berlin behaved more cautiously. "Russia 88" by Pavel Bardin, tracing the connection between fascist movements and power, was shown in 2009, but modestly, in one of the parallel programs. And already last year, the Berlinale clearly outlined its position. Three films of 2011 - "On Saturday", "Khodorkovsky" and "Target" - formed a kind of trilogy about the catastrophic past, the gloomy present and the "cheerful" future of the country, which is "immediately to the right" from Europe. „

We have few truly social films, they are afraid to make them out of fear either of the authorities or of a potential commercial failure.

“This year, our films did not enter the competition, except for a purely American film by Billy Bob Thornton, where Alexander Rodnyansky acted as a producer. On the other hand, both of our films from parallel programs - "Convoy" by Alexei Mizgirev and "Tomorrow" by Andrey Gryazev - gave the Berlin public something that only rare Russian publications give their readers. "Convoy" at times resembles the "chernukha" of Alexei Balabanov. The sick army captain returns the deserter to the unit and takes him through Moscow. The rest cannot be described in a few words. At the same time, the army guys are still nothing (although what is being done in the barracks is also shown in the film). Worst of all are the cops, and some other non-Russian bandits. Mizgirev and his producer Pavel Lungin said at a meeting with the public that there is no political message in the film, it is about a nightmare in the minds that is inherent in the whole world. But the Berlin selectors rated the film unambiguously, presenting it in the festival catalog as a reflection of the "monstrous depression and everyday horror of life in Russia."
In the film with the symbolic name "Tomorrow" the main villains are also cops. "Tomorrow" is a funny, deliberately amateur chronicle of the life and actions of the hooligan art group "Voina". It is here that anti-Putin slogans appear - at a rally in defense of the members of the group arrested after the well-known action "Petersburg Palace Revolution". Pure journalism also sounds in the film: when there is corruption in the country, someone writes about it, and someone, in protest, creates a special type of art - political performances.
In the 90s, many believed that we would soon live in a truly democratic country, and the propaganda of our “dirty” at festivals was annoying. In fact, even now I don’t like it very much that the Berlinale promotes only such our cinema. After all, we have few truly social films, they are afraid to make them out of fear either of the authorities, or of a potential commercial failure. There is almost no competition. And of course, it is embarrassing that both films selected by Berlin 2012 have a huge number of shortcomings. In "Convoy" - scenario inconsistencies and fictional literary Fenya. In "Tomorrow" - problems of a moral sense. The political actions of the "War" are funny and conceptual (especially the giant phallus on the Liteiny Bridge in front of the building of the St. Petersburg FSB). But here, for example, shoplifting (action under the slogan "Prosperous theft country") ... Not everyone is ready to justify theft "for the sake of art." There are no comments for the film.
And yet. If the Berlin Festival wants to remain politically relevant, then encouraging cinema that honestly analyzes our reality is the only sound position.