‘Not With You’

Russian rock band DDT channels Perestroika-era film in new music video about generational politics

Translation by Alexandra Cole

In the opening minutes of a new music video from the Russian rock band DDT, a dinner guest complains about his daughter’s indecision and wastefulness, rattling off criticisms of modern-day youths in a scene modeled on a moment in Karen Shakhnazarov’s 1986 Soviet comedy-drama “Courier” — a film that captured generational frictions during Russia’s Perestroika era. In DDT’s video, the adult finishes his rant by asking the hosts’ teenage son how young people today make sense of their lives. “By love,” the son answers.

Directed by Ksenia Shutka, “Not With You” is a music video by DDT about free children and not-so-free parents. The song itself was released last year on the album “Creativity in the Void.”

After the opening scene described above, the music video features scenes of young people partying wildly across St. Petersburg with police officers following them wherever they go. At the end of the video, it’s revealed that the young man from the beginning is now a police officer himself, following in the footsteps of his parents and their dinner guest, who are also officers, it turns out.

This conclusion is crucial to the video’s message, explained television and music journalist Mikhail Kozyrev, who wrote on Facebook, “You definitely need to watch it to the end. When you realize what will happen with the characters, it hits you hard.”

Actors Pavel Litov, Tomer Goldstein, and Angelina Maga portrayed the teenagers in the video, while Oleg Almazov, Nikolai Gorshkov, and Rada Drebskaya played the adults.

In Russia, the band DDT has faced challenges for its opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. According to the news outlet Fontanka, the authorities have blacklisted front man Yuri Shevchuk for mocking Vladimir Putin at a concert in July where he said from the stage, “Friends, the Motherland isn’t the president’s ass, which must be slobbered and kissed all the time. The Motherland is the old woman begging in the train station, selling potatoes. That’s the Motherland.”

Local police later charged Shevchuk with the misdemeanor offense of “discrediting” Russia’s military. The case is currently under review at a court in Bashkiria (where Shevchuk made the remarks).