Glasnost Film Festival--Vol. 1: Against The Current/The Wood Goblin; Glasnost Film Festival--Vol. 8: This Is How We Live/Homecoming

The Glasnost Film Festival series is a compilation of some 22 Soviet films, all but two of which were made from 1986-1988 during the "glasnost era." We examined Vols. 1 and 8 of the set. In Vol. 1, Against the Current paints a shocking portrait of ecological crime, as residents of Kirishi protest the ill health effects brought on by a major synthetic protein plant. The documentary includes footage of the protest, as women cry that we have "buried our children," as well as clips of Soviet officials claiming that the synthetic protein being produced is harmless. The second film, The Wood Goblin, is an affecting portrait of a Russian hermit who "helps life by looking after nature." On constant guard against woodcutters and hunters, this elderly "goblin" was once a leading member of the Communist Party, and for a while headed up the propaganda department. The irony of his current situation is both humorous and thought-provoking. Volume 8 opens up a new vista for Western audiences: the sight of the Russian punk. In This Is How We Live, teenagers with spiked hair and bristling attitudes are interviewed about their discontents with parents, school, and society. They sport t-shirts featuring American heavy metal band names, go to concerts, and gleefully shoot the finger at the camera. A familiar sight in the West, but behind the Iron Curtain? Apparently so. On the more chilling side, another youth group take a different tack altogether, with tell-tale swastikas, talk of world sterilization, and purification of the races. A little older are the young Soviet men in Homecoming, who have returned from fighting in Afghanistan (an unpopular war) to face treatment similar to Americans returning from Vietnam. Although the faces of each of the veterans looks different, the sense of confusion and bitterness is common to all. Both of these videos depict a Russia that is much more complex than former President Reagan's simpleminded phrase "the evil empire." It's important for people to see Russia from the inside out, rather than hear only the moronic tag names coined by our government looking from the outside in (with blinders on, at that). Highly recommended. (Available from: The Video Project, 5332 College Ave., Suite 101, Oakland, CA 94618.)