One of the biggest political stories of the century has to be the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe from 1989-1992. Part of the former Soviet Union's share of the tale is presented in Russian filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya's Revealing Russia, five stand alone videos on various aspects of the struggle for freedom. We watched the first and third tapes in the set. Winner of a Golden Gate award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, The Shattered Mirror is a personal documentary, a video journal chronicling the shifting emotional and rational states of Goldovskaya and her subjects (people primarily from the arts). Combining both English narration and Russian subtitles (which is sometimes overwhelming and often distracting), the film jumps from bizarre interviews with people learning new ways to make ends meet ("You can bring up baby crocodiles in an apartment,") to demonstrations where protesters voice their discontent ("You're all traitors, asses, and bastards.") It would be too much to expect coherency in a film about a place and time that were inherently chaotic, still the flighty nature of the video with its mixture of the reflective and mundane will appeal to a limited audience of contemporary historians and some film buffs (there's a lot of self-referential filmmaking here).A Taste of Freedom, however, which aired on Turner Network Television, is a much more watchable piece. The film focuses on a specific couple--Sasha, a tireless perestroika TV journalist whose outspoken pieces have resulted in threats, and Anya, his wife, who is torn between supporting her husband and watching as her family life disintegrates. Using only English narration (rather than a combination of voice-over and subtitles), the video follows Sasha on his trips to Azerbaijan where ethnic conflicts have caused many fights, to a town only 19 miles away from Chernobyl where a child's wagon horrifyingly sends the Geiger counter dancing, and to parties where Anya tries to cope with her husband's newfound "popularity" as a TV star. a good film about the changing cultural and political perceptions of the Russian people, and about how one family responds to pressures that they would have never dreamed possible in the relatively insular and close-mouthed society under communism.The Shattered Mirror is an optional purchase. a Taste of Freedom is recommended for larger collections. The other three titles in the series are: Lucky to Be Born in Russia, The House With Knights, and Solovky Power (all five are available for a series price of $599.) (R. Pitman)
The Shattered Mirror; A Taste Of Freedom
(1992) 58 min. $150. The Video Project. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 9, Issue 4
The Shattered Mirror; A Taste Of Freedom
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