The history of Soviet madness

In Prague, the premiere of the film "Eight Chapters of madness" about the Russian poetess Anna Barkova, who spent half her life - almost 30 years in Prague.

The film presentation begins with the letter of Barkova, Henry Yagoda, which has survived in the archives, at that time the drug addict of the USSR, in which she after the first arrest asks for the highest degree of punishment, comparing a five -year link to Karlag with a slow death by court decision. Having survived the first conclusion, Barkov will be convicted twice, and each time-according to the same 58th article, for anti-Soviet activities. Life in the Gulag becomes the main plot of the outline of the film, in which real events from the biography of the poet are intertwined with fiction.

The screenwriter and director Marta Novakova says that, despite the desire to tell about the fate of Anna Barkova, she wanted to show the reality of the forced labor system in the USSR.

- Anna Barkova is not so well known in Russia, and even more so in the Czech Republic. How did you find out about her?

- At first I became interested in the camp theme. I visited the Solovetsky Islands and after that I began to think about how to make it back to return again. I knew that I would not have money, and thought about the fact that it would be possible to somehow connect this trip with work-to make some kind of film. But not about the camp, but about creativity in the camp. It was interesting to me: people taught poems by heart, so that later, when they fell on the mainland, transfer them further or write them down. It was first. Then I read the thesis work of the Bzonkova Rady, who wrote not only about camp work, but also about some Anna Alexandrovna Barkova. At first I did not attach importance to this, because I did not really understand this scientific text. But when I read the collection of Anna Barkova, bought somewhere in Moscow, in which there were her letters and diaries (not a poem, but rather her life), it seemed very interesting to me. When I learned more about her life, I also understood her poems. Her letters and diaries were so sharp, ironic, it was surprising that at that difficult time when they arrested everyone in a row, some person said what he was thinking. Then it was very dangerous to express your thoughts so.

Director Marta Novakova during the filming of the film about Anna Barkova

- Many writers, poets who were in the camps of the Gulag very frankly expressed their thoughts. Why did Anna Barkova seemed to you such an unusual person that you decided to make a film about her?

- Of course, many writers were frank, but Barkov is asocial, she was not only in creativity, but also in society, in life, dismissed from conventions. When she worked in the Kremlin, she critically wrote to friends about those with whom she worked: "They are such gentlemen." She did not look back at the fact that someone was reading letters. I liked how strange and lonely she is.

- "Eight chapters of madness" is the name of Anna Barkova’s prose work, which is based on a conversation with the devil. Your film is not a film adaptation of this short story, but the story of the poet’s life. Why did you use this analogy in the name?

Anna is a kind of guide on the twentieth century in Russia

- Since I knew that I did not want to talk only about the life of Anna Barkova, I doubt that this film is exclusively about her. This is rather a picture of the Soviet Union and Russia of the twentieth century. Anna is a kind of guide on the twentieth century in Russia. Therefore, the name "eight chapters of madness" came up: each of the eight chapters of the film has its own theme about life in the Soviet Union at that time.

- Nevertheless, the film has a lot of fiction. For example, a scene about Stalin’s call. Anna Barkova did not call Stalin ...

- Of course, Stalin did not call Anna Barkova to the camp. But we know about the following cases: he called Pasternaku, Bulgakov. In the list, which during the scene in the film lies in front of Stalin, there is also the surname Strum - this is a character from the novel by Vasily Grossman "Life and Fate." There is a scene in this book when it seems that Strum is about to arrest, and Stalin calls. And everyone will learn about it, no one knows how. And immediately everyone begins to respect him, he again receives a car, etc. Anna Barkova, of course, Stalin did not call. But this is not such a fiction.

- The film tells a lot about Anna’s relationship with women. This is both in her poems and in the diaries. Why did you decide to include this in the narrative?

- The film is not only about the twentieth century, of course, but also about a particular person, therefore there is a little biographical in it. Of course, I cannot omit that Anna Barkova was a lesbian. But I want to emphasize that this is not the topic of the film for me. She was just like that, and that means it is in the plot. There is a scene in the film when Barkov’s bicycle rides, and then goes to his teacher. It was taken by me from the diaries where she says that she is a gymnasium student, that she loves a woman - a literature teacher. She writes that "she is a German, and I am Russian." After that, the First World War begins, and we know that in the 20s in Moscow there was a lot of cabaret and same-sex relations-it was normal. This was not considered something terrible, as today, and so it appeared in the film. If Barkova had one eye, then it would be in the film.

Frame from the film "Eight Chapters of madness"

- Do you plan to show a film in Russia and are you not afraid of reactions that can follow?

- Of course, I know about the current Russian situation. But I have no doubt that this film will be shown in Russia. There is interest from several organizations that want to show this film to Russian viewers. Four years ago, I already showed excerpts in the Museum of the History of the Gulag. But, of course, I doubt that the “eight chapters of madness” will be rented, in cinemas, you can rather expect a show on some shares of Czech organizations.

- You rented for quite some time - eight years and raised funds for shooting, including through crowdfunding. Was there an interest among those who sacrificed funds, precisely to the fact that the film is about the Russian poetess?

- I think that rather, interest was the fact that the Russian poetess was played by a very famous Czech singer Aneta Langerova. On the other hand, of course, a camp topic.

I want to say that we collected a little, but it helped us continue to work and be able to look for other money. What we managed to collect with crowdfunding is a very small part compared to the film’s budget: she could not save the film, but it helped us a lot.

- The film ends with a metaphorical scene: on the mausoleum instead of the word “Lenin” it is written “Anna Barkov”, next to her portrait and date - 2084. Barkova wrote in her diaries how she hopes that sooner or later she would read. She hoped that this would happen in many, many years, ten years after her lines were written. Is this scene from the film to some extent the visualization of her thoughts?

She wrote: "You will write about me dissertations"

- Exactly. In one of the poems she has: "You will not even know whether he or her." She wrote: "You will write about me dissertations." That is, she believed in her work. In general, I came up with this scene, inspired by the novels of Vladimir Sorokin's "Oprichnik Day", "Metel", "Sugar Kremlin", in which he talks about the near future of Russia. He draws a very interesting world, when some countries are no longer there, new ones arise, and in Russia a powerful sovereign remains in Russia. Of course, we see a parallel both today and with the past, we recall Ivan the Terrible. But at the same time it is also a reference to Orwell, as well as the poem by Anna Barkova.

- Anna Barkova is rather a consequence of your interest in Russia. In addition to the director's faculty, you studied at Karlovy University. Why?

- In childhood, my parents in the cabinets were novels "Anna Karenina", "War and Peace". I read them and perceived them rather as romantic, although it was some kind of critical realism. So interest in Russia, but rather, in culture, literature, history, of course, appeared thanks to these novels that I read in childhood. And he still does not fade away thanks to literature. Literature for me is the most important. Not a film, but literature.