Anti-norm that has become the norm

On January 24, a private screening of the new film by Vladimir Mirzoev "Her name was Mumu" was held in Moscow

Behind the plot of the game (not documentary!) The events of 2008-2010 are easily guessed, when the girls Katya and Nastya, "Mumu" and "Chuks", it is still not clear on whose instructions they slept in safe houses with several figures of the Russian opposition. Then these videos were published on the Internet. According to the most common version, the young ladies simply got caught on drugs, after which they worked out their duty to the security forces in such a non-standard way. One of the victims of the scandal, politician Ilya Yashin, told director Vladimir Mirzoev about his adventures, and he decided that the story was worthy of a film adaptation. By the way, Mirzoev's first thought was to offer to write the script for the film to Viktor Shenderovich, who was also involved in the plot with the real Mumu. He, on reflection, refused, deciding that it would be some kind of transcendent postmodernism.

For many of the heroes of that story, the publication of the commercials was a truly painful blow. But, remembering those events from today, especially if you update Ramzan Kadyrov's Instagram at the same time, you might think that then, in order to fight the opposition, the authorities resorted to completely herbivorous measures. Not to say pleasant.

Mirzoev's first thought was to offer to write the script for the film to Viktor Shenderovich, who was also involved in the plot with the real Mumu. He, after thinking, refused, deciding that it would be some kind of transcendent postmodernism

The main character of the film, Mirzoeva, played by the charming Irina Vilkova, is a provincial young lady who failed to graduate from the Russian State Humanitarian University and remained to work in Moscow in a modeling agency. There she is found by a nondescript man from an unnamed department, who hires the girl to sleep with the oppositionists under a video camera. Characters are selected typical. Here is the crazy colonel, always returning to military experiences and demanding drastic measures: “We must restore the monarchy with executions at the Execution Ground and broadcasts throughout Russia. To be seen and feared. And disillusioned with everything in the world, a political scientist who sees deceit everywhere. And the artist, frightened by life: “They offered me to star in the video -“ it will be fun and scary. I agreed. For what? I'm so scared." And an activist blogger, for whom even at the moment of intimacy with a girl it is much more important to answer the call from the radio and tell for the thousandth time that “the authorities are in a situation of zugzwang”, and the opposition is about to win. It seems to be living people, but it seems to be ghosts. It seems that they live like everyone else, but if you think about it, what is the norm. Rather, it is an antinorm accepted by society as something quite acceptable.

Behind funny scenes and caricature characters, general disorder and hopelessness peep through. In the end, absolutely everyone looks unhappy: the authors of the provocation, and its victims, and the relatives of the main character who came from the provinces. And, of course, the girl herself, who in the end can not stand everything that happens to her and runs away. The finale remains open: what happened to Mumu from the film, the viewer can only guess. The homeland once adequately repaid the real Mumu: a few years later the girl was found in Barcelona and, it seems, she felt very well there. In 2015, the finale of the fictional Mumu turns out to be much sadder than the fate of her life prototype from 2010. Probably, this also tells us a lot about the changed times.