January 15, 2019

A Tale of Two Movies


A Tale of Two Movies
Still from T-34. Central Partnership

The winter holidays are known to be difficult in Russia. Ever since the decision to make the first five days of the year, as well as Orthodox Christmas, public holidays, the resulting break often stretched to 10 days or more (by law, if the holiday falls on a weekend, it is then shifted to the next weekday.

Traveling during this time of the year is notoriously nightmarish, since prices skyrocket and hotel rooms are difficult to book. According to economists at the Plekhanov Institute who made the calculation last week, the holiday economic shutdown costs over 1 percent of GDP.

Those who are stuck at home face the question: once the New Year’s holiday spread is digested and the alcohol fumes fade, what does one do with all the time that remains? The answer is often to hit the cinema, and in recent years studios have battled to get their films released in theaters during this hiatus as way to get the most bang for their invested buck.

This year, the obvious “plat de resistance” in the holiday film fare on offer is T-34, an action flick set during World War II that many critics said looks more like an episode of the popular video game World of Tanks than a drama about the tragedy of war.

Hardly a descendant of the great tradition of touching Soviet-era war films, like The Cranes are Flying or Ballad of a Soldier, T-34 (named after the WWII Soviet tank) is more like an estranged cousin of a one-dimensional Hollywood comic book adaptation . The plot sends protagonist Ivushkin first into a head-spinning tank battle, then into a seemingly horror-free Nazi concentration camp, from which he daringly escapes (on a tank, of course). “What turns out is not a drama, but fun clips of tanks from the popular online game,” said a searing review by Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper.

 

Official trailer for "T-34".

 

As if to prove the criticism, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky on Tuesday said his son endorsed the film by sending him a meme: an image of American superheroes with the caption “We argued when we were kids who is cooler, Batman or Superman?” The second image has a Soviet soldier, and is captioned, “Now I know.”

Medinsky Post
Medinsky's Twitter Post

Medinsky endorses films that glorify the Soviet Union and skip over less unambiguous pages in the country’s history, whether that be in war or peace. The Russian government is also generally impatient with films with a different angle or narrative. Last year Moscow pulled the license for theatrical release of the British farce The Death of Stalin, about unsavory squabbles among the Soviet elites following Stalin’s unexpected death, for example.

So it was expected that Alexei Krasovsky'с black comedy The Feast (Праздник), about a privileged Soviet family preparing for а New Year’s party in besieged Leningrad, would not go down well. The film, which was made on a small, crowdfunded budget, starts when the matriarch of the household dangles a chicken by its legs and cringes: Why didn’t they send us something more fancy? she asks, while the rest of the city is dying of starvation. Her universe is rattled later in the evening when her son brings home a “common” girl, who confesses, in the midst of devouring the food in front of her, that her family kept the father’s corpse on the balcony in order to continue getting his rations.

 

Watch the trailer to Prazdnik.
Click this link to watch the entire film and access various donation options.

 

The lavish lifestyle of some members of the nomenklatura during the war has been well documented, but Krasovsky began facing official indignation and received phone threats even before the film was released on YouTube in January. Lawmakers accused him of sacrilege and “laughing at the memory of Leningrad’s heroic history.” But comments under his YouTube release, where he also asks for donations, indicate that people also see parallels between the film and the rampant inequality in modern Russian society. Though clearly a low-budget production without the cinematic feel of a state-backed multi-million budget, Prazdnik has nonetheless received a fair amount of praise.

The tale of two movies is a little like a tale of two Russias. One seeks a popcorn version of its own history, while the other prefers a stigmatised version with not a single likeable character, and is exiled to the internet.

In the first weekend of their respective releases, T-34 made over $10 million in the box office. Prazdnik collected R2.65 million (about $40,000)in donations in the first week of January, almost half of which was on the day of its release (January 2).

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955