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The Russian cultural scene, including cinema, has changed radically since February 24, 2022. The capital's trend toward patriotism and ideological struggle with the West has also permeated the provincial film industry. "NotMoscow Speaking" with "New Tab" They tell how Perm cinema has gone from the "cultural revolution" of Marat Gelman, now recognized as a foreign agent, to the children's festival "Medvezhonok," which screens films from the Foundation for the Support of Military-Patriotic Cinema, in 20 years.

At four o'clock in the morning on February 24, 2022, the team of the independent investigative project "Perm 36,6" finished working on the film "Mom, I come back» about three prisoners of Perm colonies.

"The war happened, and we shelved the film," says Masha Sovina, the media project's director. "We released it in September, when it was already appropriate. The topic of convict recruitment for war came up then, and prisons were a hot topic."

One of the film's subjects had his hands smashed in prison, another was decapitated, and a third was found hanged in his cell. Prison administrators claimed these incidents were accidents, but the documentary's creators were able to find evidence to the contrary. They spoke with experts who revealed that safety regulations were violated in the prisons, and a miter saw alone could not have severed a prisoner's head.

The Perm 36,6 project team also discovered strange details in the surveillance footage: in one of the videos, an unknown object was moving erratically. "Most likely, the footage was edited," says Sovina.

Films on sensitive social issues in Perm are currently being created only by politically active amateur documentary filmmakers. Although there are only a few of them left, they cannot complain about the lack of attention from the public and the authorities. For example, a month after the release of the film "Mom, I'll Be Back," relatives of one of the men who died in Penal Colony No. 10 in Chusovoy, Perm Krai, have achieved initiation of a criminal case. In January 2023, the head of IK-10 fired.

Then, in January, the authorities gave the participants of the Perm 36,6 project пthreatened "After a while, Center E officers came to our parents and started asking where we were and where we worked. Our mothers were taken in for questioning," recalls Masha Sovina. On July 13, the Ministry of Internal Affairs removed Sergei Ukhov, the project manager and former head of Navalny's Perm headquarters. announced wanted.

Despite the threats, the project team continued working on other films. One of them is dedicated to the life of a Perm resident a year after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. During filming, Sovina noticed that Perm residents' "sense of fear had dulled." "We can share freedom of speech [with the people of Perm]," the director explains why their films are so important today, especially against the backdrop of Perm's relatively neutral professional cinema.

Freedom of thought and creative expression were once the most important values ​​for Perm cinema. In the early 2000s, local director Alexei Romanov, who participated in the short film program at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, homage The Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer directed the film "Gorlanová, or the House with All the Inconveniences." It's dedicated to Perm writer Nina Gorlanova, who mused in the film: "It's against God to speak out against freedom of speech. God created us free. Putin is going against God... it's impossible, he needs to be warned." She expresses these thoughts at a post office while sending the president a telegram in defense of NTV.

In 2008 in Perm, began "Cultural Revolution." To popularize contemporary art, Perm Krai Governor Oleg Chirkunov invited gallery owner Marat Gelman and other cultural figures to the region. Eduard Boyakov, then artistic director of the Moscow Praktika Theater, conceived the "Texture" festival of contemporary film and theater.

For example, they showed a film by Marina Razbezhkina’s workshop, “Winter, go away!" about the protest rallies before the 2012 presidential elections and the Pussy Riot performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, as well as "Pipe"Vitaly Mansky's film has a sharply critical message, highlighting the contrast between the enormous profits Russia receives from the sale of raw materials and the standard of living of most of its citizens.

In 2010, Oleg Chirkunov told Vladimir Putin, then Russia's Prime Minister, about Perm's plans to become the European Capital of Culture by 2016. The initiative was approved. "It's a good project, we'll support it!" quoted Putin's governor in his LiveJournal.

True, the "cultural revolution," according to Pavel Pechenkin, founder of the Perm film studio "New Course," brought nothing to local directors. He criticized "Texture" is criticized for failing to create a foundation for the city's cinematic development, for long-term creative resources. The films presented there, Pechenkin said, were "glamorous" and simply "imported from Moscow."

Already in 2013, a rollback to conservatism began in Perm: after the resignation of Oleg Chirkunov, the Texture festival ceased to exist, and the region began to follow the “materials and proposals for the draft principles of state cultural policy,” in which it is saidthat the most important thing is the “principles of historicism” and the country should abandon the “principles of multiculturalism and tolerance,” since “Russia is not Europe.”

Alexey Romanov called The "cultural revolution" was "a powerful thing that had a huge impact on the city": "It's sad without it today. Behind every event stands a person. And the people who made that cultural revolution are no longer here; they've left Perm and gone all over the world."

Gelman and Mansky were designated as foreign agents and placed on the wanted list. Chirkunov has been on his Facebook cover photo since February 2022*. is The inscription reads: "There will be no war when everyone says 'no.'" Except that Boyakov became one of the leading figures of Russian Z-conservatism.

Even Pechenkin found something good in the Perm “revolution”: its main achievement He believes it is possible to unite local creative people to resist the “invasion” of art that is alien to Perm residents.

Local creatives joined forces to organize the "Medvezhonok" children's and family film festival in Perm. The Perm Film Commission invited the Military-Patriotic Film Support Foundation (Voenkino Foundation) to partner with the festival. In June 2022, the Ministry of Defense established the foundation, and in June 2023, the Voenkino Foundation presented patriotic films at the "Medvezhonok" festival.

One of the films was made by students of the Suvorov Military School. Dedicated to the childhood of Alexander Suvorov, "The Science of Faith is the Science of Victory!" begins with a prayer for the Fatherland and ends with an exhortation to love Russia and believe in God. The film's refrain is a song with the following lines:

"We are destined to win, to defend Russia from childhood. I ask God's blessing for this: to be strong in spirit and never retreat."

The festival's general producer, Alena Semerikova-Volkova, explained that the foundation's films "communicate important messages for young people" and are therefore included in the program.

Children also judged the "Bear Cub" films. The young jury members introduced themselves at the festival's press conference, a separate section of which was dedicated to discussing the crisis in cinema. Actress Maria Shukshina, who has repeatedly expressing concerns about the education of a "nation of morons" by entertainment cinema, complained that “culture is being destroyed, culture is being replaced by a surrogate designed for primitive tastes.” After it acted Seventh-grader Pyotr Nokhrin, who called himself a patriot who prefers Russian art to Western art, spoke negatively about the period of the 90s, due to which the country lost real Russian cinema and "sowed patriotism."

To further immerse regional audiences in the current political agenda, the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Cinema Fund launch Documentaries about the "special operation" are being shown in 14 cinemas across the region. Most of the films were produced by the RT channel. These include films about the children of Donbas, medical workers, frontline singers, and the Z-poets, who have been compared to Pushkin.

Although Perm filmmakers still set ambitious goals for themselves goals, for example, “to build Hollywood in Russia,” while they are forced (if they want to receive funding from the budget) to choose темы From the Ministry of Culture's priority list. These include both neutral themes like "culture of Russia's regions" and highly politicized ones like "the degradation of Europe."

However, directors are in no rush to make films with patriotic themes. "I won't be involved," director Alexei Romanov replies curtly.

Perm director Olga Averkieva explains that the Ministry of Culture's priority topics always include those that are non-political. In 2023, these included film chronicles, the culture and traditions of Russia's regions, and the life of small towns and villages. "There is a system of state procurement for film. We just don't have it. Directors in Perm are not obligated to film on specific topics," she asserts.

According to Averkieva, films shot outside the capital are simply a way to show how people live there. Her film "Breaking Free. A Love Story", which tells the story of those who could live independently but are instead housed in a psychiatric boarding school, set a social precedent. According to the director, after the film's release, many former residents of the boarding school were able to lead full lives.

Averkieva believes the film's greatest achievement is its impact on audiences: "I saw people watching this film in the theater. The usual sense of disgust toward people who are 'different' is changing, transforming. People are willing to be open to difficult life situations."

Still, remaining an apolitical director in Perm isn't easy. "This year, getting funding has become more difficult: out of twelve grants we applied for, our film studio, 'New Course,' has only received one so far. I don't yet know why," says Averkieva.

Since 2019, a regional network of social cinemas has been operating in the Perm Krai. They need "simple and understandable films—about what's good, not about how many problems there are." told Averkieva.

Social cinemas are especially popular in smaller towns in the region. "In Perm, they show arthouse films and social dramas, but rural residents already face many challenges," Olga Akhmedzyanova, head of the Social Cinemas project at the Perm Cinematheque, explains to Novaya Vkabka. "They need inspiring, positive films."

Social cinemas have become a replacement for traditional movie theaters, which are currently facing difficulties. As early as 2022, in Russia shut down Two thousand movie theaters, well-known film companies left the country, and more than 20 films were not released. To attract audiences, the Perm Premier Cinema, along with "Social Cinemas," organize Educational programs where you can learn about the Great Patriotic War, femininity, courage, or success. You can attend a lecture on foreign arthouse films or an intimate evening of local trash cinema.

Several were also launched in the region Projects "kind and bright films" about volunteerism, "modern heroes," and charity. These events are being held by the Perm film festival "Lampa," a partner of the #WEARETOGETHER forum. Online This volunteer movement is not without politics: they immediately suggest thinking about how to help “participants in a special military operation” who are “gradually returning home.”

Perhaps the last vestige of the "free era" in Perm remains the Flahertyana documentary film festival (named, incidentally, after the American director Robert Flaherty). Despite the war and the subsequent sanctions, directors from European countries—Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, and elsewhere—continue to collaborate with the festival. Perm director Alexey Romanov explains this paradox: "For them, the events in Ukraine are a very local story. We're immersed in it all, while they know little."

Echoes of the pre-war apolitical atmosphere in the Perm film world irritate those who have truly embraced the spirit of the "special operation." One such person is Maxim Vorobey, a local activist and the first person in Perm to film an amateur documentary. film on the topic of war. In his opinion, documentaries about the political situation in the region were long overdue, but those involved in "domestic culture and propaganda" are still much more interested in festivals.

His newsreel, as Vorobey calls his work, depicts a local humanitarian convoy delivering packages to Russian soldiers at the front. One of the film's characters says that when the war ends, "a new society will emerge, one without degradation and decay."

"What's wrong with that phrase, personally?" Vorobey reacts irritably to our journalist's question about its meaning. Vorobey himself believes that Russia still lacks a "clear state position" and "political will," which is why people's lives remain "chaotic." Among other things, Vorobey explains, is why only activists make war-themed films, even though directors should have government contracts to produce such films.

Commissioned films still exist today, but they focus on factories, the history of cities, or the Great Patriotic War. Olga Averkieva suggests that director Pavel Pechenkin made the film "Black Knife Division," about Soviet tank crews, precisely at the request of the authorities. In 2021, this work was highly appreciated at the festival in Yekaterinburg.

Most often, commissioned films, says Masha Sovina, are "ugly and crude replicas of history." But the director believes they are also valuable in their own way: "Through them, we will trace how history has changed and the regime has degraded."

Lola Romanova

Photo: Evgeny Demshin