Content sea pirates

How Covid and sanctions returned Russian viewers during illegal films

Cinemas have been buried for the past ten years, but never a lethal diagnosis has never seemed so likely. Kovid at the beginning of 2020 and sanctions in 2022 radically changed the habits of Russian spectators: objectively cannot be opposed to trackers and pirate sites-neither in variety nor in terms of access. The film critic Alice Taja tells how the events of the last three years made even from many supporters of the legal content of pirates - perhaps irreversibly.

The seats marked with crosses, the smell of a sanitizer, lonely spectators even on weekends, shifts of releases for months - everyone remembers half -empty quarantine cinema halls with a limited landing three years ago. Even then, the world industry considered huge losses, and if large corporations like Disney or Universal had a margin of strength, then small studios and festival rental companies were on the verge of ruin. Among all public spaces, cinemas and museums opened access to the public one of the latter. And so small halls, full of half, did not pay off the rights to demonstrate films, the sessions became 20-30 percent less, and many had the mood to go out in the midst of the pandemic. The incomes of the audience were reduced: many were fired, many began to work even more to maintain their previous earnings, so that a trip to the movie by a company or a family of several people became tangible to the wallet. At the price of several trips to the cinema, it was more profitable to buy an inexpensive TV in the living room and watch a movie in self -isolation.

At the end of 2021, it seemed that a temporary solution with legal content was found. Online subscriptions for a while have grown (for example, incredible expansion of Netflix), and streaming (including Russian) threw spectators not only by international online premiers, but also their own releases. Spectators of special shows have returned interest in one -time events - a few festivals, premieres and meetings with directors. But regular rental has not restored to the indicators of the top of 2018-2019.

After February 2022, the Russian and world rental went different roads: the repertoire in the Russian Federation decreased sharply, the Russians were disconnected from international services, and from available domestic streaming began to withdraw super popular Hollywood films, and often on the eve of the holidays and long holidays: the classic of the Disney animation, Kinovelny Marvel, “Star Wars”, “Star Wars”, “Star Wars”. “Lord of the Rings”, “Strong nut”, the series “Friends” and Saga about Harry Potter. Most of the large world -class premieres in Russia did not take place or passed in the gray zone: for example, Batman was illegally shown on closed lists for the elite, and Avatar: Water Way - under the guise of “free pre -maintenance” for showing a six -minute Dubak cartoon. People associated with the film industry began to move massively to other countries or hold events in large cities of the CIS.

Pirate sites with their own studios of voice acting have already felt good for several years, and over the past six months, so to speak, they just bloomed. Five minutes of attentive search-and you can find the databases of films without intrusive sunsid advertising or jumping banners of an online casino (eternal sponsors of all illegal on the network). If a few years ago, a torrent client had to be installed for pirate viewing, now a pirate site with 20 updates per day opens in a browser with a universal VPN, a person who is not even saved in technology will cope. For those who did not “not pirate” before, in 2022, treasures of niche content were opened: Turkish series, Korean Rome, half -forgotten cinema of the 20th century and anime universe. Add to the pirate menu free online lectures, stand-ups, podcasts, streams and video interviews-it turns out not even a sea, but an ocean.

They look at everything without a system. The preferences of domestic spectators that have changed over the year can be easily studied without access to personal profiles: in the comments on each film and the series, users of Russian -speaking pirate sites advise each other “similar” and share their impressions of new products. Most experience and taste are chaotic and coincides with the assortment of a round -the -clock pirate buffet. A passage American detective series is watched and recommended simultaneously with the novelty of A24 studio, a film from the 80s with Kevin Costner-with a Chinese Rome, and a professional comedy with an anime series about schoolgirls.

What in the end has a choice of a viewer in Russia and the CIS, without free time and free money, if he wants to get to the cinema? A dozen supported protectionist policies of Russian films at the box office are most often terrible quality: a parade of cheburashki, heroes and silver skates. In the best case, once a month, a foreign hit type “John Wick 4” and “Three Musketeers” reaches him. Once in the season, an art-world-mainstimate film, which has long been online in excellent quality with subtitles, is being released for a year. The companies of the repeated show finally squeeze hits from their catalogs, to which there are still rights.

But online - expanse and diversity is completely free. Most films over six months are in two clicks. Novels Netflix and HBO are laid out the next day. Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings and Friends in place, as if there were no sanctions. Festival films from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sandens and Berlin, including rare ones, are available throughout the year: moviegoers are especially in no hurry and wait patiently. The main Oscar nominees are annually drained right in front of the bonus. The mainstream classic in the spirit of the “strong nut” and “Showson escape” is in ten different translations. Family cinema can be watched with comfort at home - and even warm up popcorn in the microwave. Prices for plasma TVs start from 10 thousand rubles, and any such equipment pays off for 15–20 home views.

For rental and streaming, which for many years brought up the audience with the habit of paying for copyright content, this is a real disaster. For an ordinary person with a fallen income, who survived the pandemic in 2020–2021, and from the 2022th, crushed by the “special operation”, is a simple way to live the usual life for the iron curtain of sanctions, poverty and censorship. The endless list of films for the evening is available for every person, locked alone with his own problems.

The hierarchy, if they existed at all, disappeared completely. Of course, the new Spielberg, Richie and Ted Lasso will run to watch first of all, and the magic of the superstar in the old memory still works, but the 24th season of “Law and Order” will not be lost: on the updates you can find many more unused diamonds. Ten years ago, in the industry there was a dispute between a full meter and an hourly series at night, now it is a choice in the endless sea, "which has merged in a week." And for spectators who simply like to watch films, and not use them as a social and cultural code of presence in the “right” field, such anarchy is rather a plus. The victory of the know-Brau (the final blurring of the line between the "high" intellectual and "low" mass products) predicted from the appearance of the Internet, but the volume of the last two to three years makes it final. In addition, not a single person brought up in the European and American tradition of copyright can imagine the scale of piracy in the post -Soviet space. Nobody will be hunting for these “savages” from abroad, even during the sanctions, which means that a long happy life is waiting for Russian-language pirate sites.

A movie that was not the first necessity before, for most non-kinomans has lost its value due to the volumes and lightness of access. The word "entertainment" for the last year seems to be inappropriate and even ashamed - even for those who have never been "interested in politics." And if there is no previous request for entertainment, then the official “entertainment industry” (in which huge money is invested), as we remember, will not be in the near future. In the regime of psychological survival, a person does not need anything - "neither cinema, no theater, no books, nor newspapers." We need a continuous video for escapism.