Viktor Tsoi interviewed at the Golden Duke Film Festival, 1988
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So did you have
fun at the festival?
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00:00:03,220 --> 00:00:04,929
(Tsoi) Nah, it was mid.
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00:00:05,300 --> 00:00:06,879
(Razlogova) This
isn't really our jam.
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00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:08,679
(Sholokhov) You
feel like you're at
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someone else's party?
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00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:10,039
(Tsoi) Of course.
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But why?
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00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:15,679
Seems to me like you're the
most interviewed person here.
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00:00:17,020 --> 00:00:18,859
More than Ryazanov,
at any rate.
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Who cares?
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No, but seriously,
the people here...
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They're not our type at all.
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Well, how did you
end up among them?
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Accidentally.
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I was curious to conduct
a sociological study
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00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:37,699
on the state of affairs
in Soviet cinema.
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00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:39,219
Yeah.
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That's why I'm
here: I'm observing.
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I've already collected
some information.
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Yeah.
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So this wasn't a waste
of time, I think.
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(Sholokhov) But I know that
you're making your career
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in the movies now.
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You starred in a film by
Rashid Nugmanov—by the
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00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:58,099
way, he's around here
somewhere, right?
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Can you see him?
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[You were in the film] "The
Needle," as one of the leads.
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So you've got good
reason to be here.
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No, that's not so.
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The thing is, this movie
is very different from
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the type that's so broadly
represented here, so...
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(Sholokhov) ...So you
feel like it ended
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up here by accident?
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It makes the same amount
of sense as if I went
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to a jazz festival in my
capacity as a musician.
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That is, no sense at all.
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So what you're saying is
that this film, "The Needle,"
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ended up at this festival
randomly, by chance?
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Yeah, of course. Of course.
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(Razlogova) Everything
being screended here
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is old-fashioned.
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Everyone here is age 40 and up.
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So even when young people
under 30 show up, they
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end up looking like Soviet
cooperative-produced jeans:
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In theory they're brand-new,
but their style is
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5 years out of date.
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That's why this is "someone
else's party" for us.
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Everything here is
old-fashioned, including
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the young people.
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So it's not really possible
for us to find like-minded
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peers here, and I assume the
film, too, will look pretty
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weird compared to all
this hokey old stuff.
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(Sholokhov) Nice.
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Tell me, would this
film be a better fit
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for the Riga festival,
the Arsenal festival?
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(Tsoi) No, it's the same
deal there, the same
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old-fashioned movies.
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(Sholokhov) Why
do you say that?
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They're saying there's
avant-garde stuff there.
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Here it's commercial films,
broadly speaking, there it's
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auteur films, but regardless,
they're all old-fashioned.
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But have you seen the movies,
are you going to screenings?
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I try, I try.
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You know, the only film that I
like here is [the 1988 horror
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film] "Mister Designer."
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At least, for now.
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A film by Oleg Teptsov,
from Leningrad.
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"Mister Designer" is in
the competition together
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with "The Needle."
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If the prize goes to...
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(Tsoi) To me it feels like
that film is going to be
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another fly in the ointment,
along with "The Needle."
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(Razlogova) Note that it
was passed over in silence.
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Every other movie got
a press conference, but
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not "MIster Designer."
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Which means, people may have
watched it, but no one said
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a word about it, because
it's not your dad's movie.
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And so the dads don't
know how to react.
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They can feel there's
something there, but they
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don't like it at all,
and they don't understand
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what it's about.
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So, yeah, "The Needle"
really is going to be
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a fly in the ointment.
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What would you say are the
characteristics of a Dad Movie?
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How do we know that's
what we're looking at?
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Well, it's part of a certain
cinematic tradition, with
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dramaturgy, screenplays,
well-developed characters,
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psychological authenticity.
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If it's "avant-garde," then
only within the framework
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of the traditional
avant-garde and traditional
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concepts of art.
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But there exists a
younger generation that
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expresses itself in
a different language.
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And what's that?
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[The young generation] doesn't
need all this logic, all
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these elaborate plots,
all this dramaturgy, with
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its beginning, climax,
and denouement....
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...all that "psychological
authenticity," which has
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totally other values.
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So then you get a film like
"Mister Decorator," with
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certain audio-visual elements
that make sense to young
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people—non-old-fashioned young
people, mind you. And then
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everyone else, apparently,
will find it incomprehensible.
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What's emerging now is a
new, youthful kind of film.
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You know, you're not
being totally fair.
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[The painter] Ilya Glazunov,
whom I spoke to earlier, said
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that his strongest impression
from the festival was
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"Mister Designer."
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But he's an artist.
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Maybe it really does
resonate more with him.
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There are both artists
and filmmakers here.
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Sure.
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Or maybe people will feel
that this is the future, and
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praise it for that reason.
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Like Solovyov, who made a
film based on rock music,
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not because he likes it, but
because he feels that it's
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the future, that it's the
language that a majority
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of viewers understand.
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(Tsoi) I have to say,
though, that of all possible
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festivals and of all possible
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types of film people,
this festival has gathered
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the worthiest, most
talented participants.
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And the idea of this festival,
that is, to make films
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that people would
actually want to watch,
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is very important to me.
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Viktor, in [Solovyov's]
film "Assa," in the finale,
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you sing a protest song.
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After the melodramatic finale,
when the beautiful woman
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kills her mafioso lover, who
falls into a bathtub full
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of roses... so we might
say that the genre
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wins out in the end.
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And the next thing that
happens is your protest song.
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Don't you think that there's
some pandering going on there,
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tailor-made for intellectuals,
so they can get their kicks?
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Well, I don't think of that
song ["Peremen"/ "Changes"]
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as a protest song. And I don't
really understand what it's
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doing in that movie, where
it ends up looking, in
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my opinion, like some
kind of false tooth.
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So.
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(Sholokhov) That's
my feeling, too.
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But I also think it's
pandering, so that some new
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mafioso, laying aside his
little volume by [Soviet
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historian of the eighteenth
century Natan] Eidelman,
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can then take his latest
girlfriend to the premiere
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of the forbidden "Assa."
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I kind of feel like this is
a question for the director.
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At the end of the day, I
couldn't have imagined...
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...what the final
result would be.
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It's...
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...ultimately, it's the
director's responsibility.
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I'm just glad that, in this
movie, I managed to look as
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separate as possible from
everything else, so...
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(Razlogova) It makes total
sense for the song to come at
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the end, because it's supposed
to force the viewer to
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sit through the whole
movie to get to it.
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Since "Viktor Tsoi" is billed
fourth in the opening credits,
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that is, with the other
leads, people, of course,
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will want to wait for
him to appear onscreen.
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If you put the song at
the beginning, what if
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they leave right after?
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But this way, they'll sit
through the whole thing,
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finally see him, and
leave only after that.
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That's how you get
the box office numbers.
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00:06:50,830 --> 00:06:52,129
Sergei Solovyov...
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...at the Baskakov Institute,
at the Moscow Institute
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of Cinematography, he told
serious people, sociologists,
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art historians, film critics
that, when he needed viewers
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00:07:03,898 --> 00:07:07,623
for a distributor-organized
screening of [the 1986 film]
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"Wild Pigeon," they "borrowed"
some soldiers, just in case,
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to fill out the audience.
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But when he needed a hundred
thousand extras for his Tsoi
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concert sequence [in "Assa"],
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(Tsoi) Not a hundred, ten.
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(Sholokhov) Right, ten
thousand extras for the
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Tsoi concert sequence,
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Tsoi just shrugged and
said, no problem, you
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just provide security.
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Is that right?
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Well, I've never been that
cocky, so I didn't say
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anything like that.
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The only thing was, I hoped
that the people who liked
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our band—I thought there
were a lot of them in Moscow.
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And I thought that when
they found out about the
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concert, they would come.
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That's why I suggested we hold
a concert, a free concert,
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And shoot that sequence
during the show.
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And, well, people came.
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I didn't say anything about
them providing security
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or anything like that.
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I don't know
anything about that.
00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:03,079
So did you have
fun at the festival?
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00:00:03,220 --> 00:00:04,929
(Tsoi) Nah, it was mid.
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00:00:05,300 --> 00:00:06,879
(Razlogova) This
isn't really our jam.
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00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:08,679
(Sholokhov) You
feel like you're at
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00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:09,339
someone else's party?
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00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:10,039
(Tsoi) Of course.
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00:00:10,180 --> 00:00:10,679
But why?
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Seems to me like you're the
most interviewed person here.
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00:00:17,020 --> 00:00:18,859
More than Ryazanov,
at any rate.
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00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:19,999
Who cares?
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00:00:20,740 --> 00:00:22,659
No, but seriously,
the people here...
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They're not our type at all.
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00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:28,539
Well, how did you
end up among them?
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00:00:29,340 --> 00:00:29,979
Accidentally.
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00:00:30,260 --> 00:00:33,979
I was curious to conduct
a sociological study
16
00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:37,699
on the state of affairs
in Soviet cinema.
17
00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:39,219
Yeah.
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00:00:39,580 --> 00:00:41,219
That's why I'm
here: I'm observing.
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00:00:43,580 --> 00:00:45,919
I've already collected
some information.
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Yeah.
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So this wasn't a waste
of time, I think.
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(Sholokhov) But I know that
you're making your career
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00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:54,879
in the movies now.
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00:00:55,020 --> 00:00:56,559
You starred in a film by
Rashid Nugmanov—by the
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00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:58,099
way, he's around here
somewhere, right?
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00:00:58,660 --> 00:00:59,199
Can you see him?
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[You were in the film] "The
Needle," as one of the leads.
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So you've got good
reason to be here.
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00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:09,369
No, that's not so.
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The thing is, this movie
is very different from
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the type that's so broadly
represented here, so...
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00:01:22,300 --> 00:01:24,531
(Sholokhov) ...So you
feel like it ended
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00:01:24,532 --> 00:01:25,649
up here by accident?
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00:01:25,650 --> 00:01:27,779
It makes the same amount
of sense as if I went
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to a jazz festival in my
capacity as a musician.
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That is, no sense at all.
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So what you're saying is
that this film, "The Needle,"
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00:01:34,710 --> 00:01:37,189
ended up at this festival
randomly, by chance?
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00:01:37,830 --> 00:01:39,569
Yeah, of course. Of course.
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(Razlogova) Everything
being screended here
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00:01:43,352 --> 00:01:44,259
is old-fashioned.
42
00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,499
Everyone here is age 40 and up.
43
00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,689
So even when young people
under 30 show up, they
44
00:01:51,690 --> 00:01:54,059
end up looking like Soviet
cooperative-produced jeans:
45
00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:56,199
In theory they're brand-new,
but their style is
46
00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:57,239
5 years out of date.
47
00:01:57,460 --> 00:01:59,019
That's why this is "someone
else's party" for us.
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00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,465
Everything here is
old-fashioned, including
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00:02:01,466 --> 00:02:02,659
the young people.
50
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,499
So it's not really possible
for us to find like-minded
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00:02:05,500 --> 00:02:08,039
peers here, and I assume the
film, too, will look pretty
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00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:10,579
weird compared to all
this hokey old stuff.
53
00:02:11,100 --> 00:02:11,999
(Sholokhov) Nice.
54
00:02:12,180 --> 00:02:14,479
Tell me, would this
film be a better fit
55
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,779
for the Riga festival,
the Arsenal festival?
56
00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:20,611
(Tsoi) No, it's the same
deal there, the same
57
00:02:20,612 --> 00:02:22,119
old-fashioned movies.
58
00:02:22,260 --> 00:02:22,759
(Sholokhov) Why
do you say that?
59
00:02:22,820 --> 00:02:24,379
They're saying there's
avant-garde stuff there.
60
00:02:25,470 --> 00:02:29,983
Here it's commercial films,
broadly speaking, there it's
61
00:02:29,984 --> 00:02:34,499
auteur films, but regardless,
they're all old-fashioned.
62
00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,179
But have you seen the movies,
are you going to screenings?
63
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:41,209
I try, I try.
64
00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:43,351
You know, the only film that I
like here is [the 1988 horror
65
00:02:43,352 --> 00:02:44,359
film] "Mister Designer."
66
00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:44,859
At least, for now.
67
00:02:46,950 --> 00:02:49,969
A film by Oleg Teptsov,
from Leningrad.
68
00:02:50,390 --> 00:02:52,175
"Mister Designer" is in
the competition together
69
00:02:52,176 --> 00:02:53,069
with "The Needle."
70
00:02:53,610 --> 00:02:55,009
If the prize goes to...
71
00:02:55,010 --> 00:02:57,549
(Tsoi) To me it feels like
that film is going to be
72
00:02:57,550 --> 00:03:00,089
another fly in the ointment,
along with "The Needle."
73
00:03:01,470 --> 00:03:03,929
(Razlogova) Note that it
was passed over in silence.
74
00:03:04,070 --> 00:03:06,321
Every other movie got
a press conference, but
75
00:03:06,322 --> 00:03:07,449
not "MIster Designer."
76
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,339
Which means, people may have
watched it, but no one said
77
00:03:10,340 --> 00:03:12,679
a word about it, because
it's not your dad's movie.
78
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,059
And so the dads don't
know how to react.
79
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:16,623
They can feel there's
something there, but they
80
00:03:16,624 --> 00:03:18,087
don't like it at all,
and they don't understand
81
00:03:18,088 --> 00:03:18,819
what it's about.
82
00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,265
So, yeah, "The Needle"
really is going to be
83
00:03:21,266 --> 00:03:22,139
a fly in the ointment.
84
00:03:22,140 --> 00:03:26,219
What would you say are the
characteristics of a Dad Movie?
85
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:27,899
How do we know that's
what we're looking at?
86
00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,791
Well, it's part of a certain
cinematic tradition, with
87
00:03:31,792 --> 00:03:34,743
dramaturgy, screenplays,
well-developed characters,
88
00:03:34,744 --> 00:03:36,219
psychological authenticity.
89
00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:38,339
If it's "avant-garde," then
only within the framework
90
00:03:38,340 --> 00:03:40,339
of the traditional
avant-garde and traditional
91
00:03:40,340 --> 00:03:41,339
concepts of art.
92
00:03:41,740 --> 00:03:43,499
But there exists a
younger generation that
93
00:03:43,500 --> 00:03:45,259
expresses itself in
a different language.
94
00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:46,119
And what's that?
95
00:03:46,260 --> 00:03:48,345
[The young generation] doesn't
need all this logic, all
96
00:03:48,346 --> 00:03:50,431
these elaborate plots,
all this dramaturgy, with
97
00:03:50,432 --> 00:03:52,519
its beginning, climax,
and denouement....
98
00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,679
...all that "psychological
authenticity," which has
99
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:57,059
totally other values.
100
00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:00,159
So then you get a film like
"Mister Decorator," with
101
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,819
certain audio-visual elements
that make sense to young
102
00:04:02,820 --> 00:04:05,479
people—non-old-fashioned young
people, mind you. And then
103
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,139
everyone else, apparently,
will find it incomprehensible.
104
00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:10,679
What's emerging now is a
new, youthful kind of film.
105
00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:12,419
You know, you're not
being totally fair.
106
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:14,703
[The painter] Ilya Glazunov,
whom I spoke to earlier, said
107
00:04:14,704 --> 00:04:16,887
that his strongest impression
from the festival was
108
00:04:16,888 --> 00:04:17,979
"Mister Designer."
109
00:04:17,980 --> 00:04:19,199
But he's an artist.
110
00:04:19,649 --> 00:04:21,768
Maybe it really does
resonate more with him.
111
00:04:21,990 --> 00:04:23,789
There are both artists
and filmmakers here.
112
00:04:23,950 --> 00:04:24,449
Sure.
113
00:04:24,450 --> 00:04:27,249
Or maybe people will feel
that this is the future, and
114
00:04:27,250 --> 00:04:28,649
praise it for that reason.
115
00:04:29,290 --> 00:04:32,311
Like Solovyov, who made a
film based on rock music,
116
00:04:32,312 --> 00:04:35,333
not because he likes it, but
because he feels that it's
117
00:04:35,334 --> 00:04:38,355
the future, that it's the
language that a majority
118
00:04:38,356 --> 00:04:39,869
of viewers understand.
119
00:04:40,010 --> 00:04:43,475
(Tsoi) I have to say,
though, that of all possible
120
00:04:43,476 --> 00:04:45,209
festivals and of all possible
121
00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,349
types of film people,
this festival has gathered
122
00:04:48,350 --> 00:04:51,099
the worthiest, most
talented participants.
123
00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:55,831
And the idea of this festival,
that is, to make films
124
00:04:55,832 --> 00:04:59,303
that people would
actually want to watch,
125
00:04:59,304 --> 00:05:01,039
is very important to me.
126
00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,505
Viktor, in [Solovyov's]
film "Assa," in the finale,
127
00:05:05,506 --> 00:05:07,419
you sing a protest song.
128
00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,381
After the melodramatic finale,
when the beautiful woman
129
00:05:11,382 --> 00:05:15,003
kills her mafioso lover, who
falls into a bathtub full
130
00:05:15,004 --> 00:05:18,625
of roses... so we might
say that the genre
131
00:05:18,626 --> 00:05:20,439
wins out in the end.
132
00:05:20,500 --> 00:05:23,139
And the next thing that
happens is your protest song.
133
00:05:23,140 --> 00:05:28,059
Don't you think that there's
some pandering going on there,
134
00:05:28,060 --> 00:05:32,979
tailor-made for intellectuals,
so they can get their kicks?
135
00:05:33,460 --> 00:05:37,239
Well, I don't think of that
song ["Peremen"/ "Changes"]
136
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,019
as a protest song. And I don't
really understand what it's
137
00:05:41,020 --> 00:05:44,799
doing in that movie, where
it ends up looking, in
138
00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,579
my opinion, like some
kind of false tooth.
139
00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:50,189
So.
140
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:51,839
(Sholokhov) That's
my feeling, too.
141
00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:54,345
But I also think it's
pandering, so that some new
142
00:05:54,346 --> 00:05:56,851
mafioso, laying aside his
little volume by [Soviet
143
00:05:56,852 --> 00:05:59,357
historian of the eighteenth
century Natan] Eidelman,
144
00:05:59,358 --> 00:06:01,863
can then take his latest
girlfriend to the premiere
145
00:06:01,864 --> 00:06:03,119
of the forbidden "Assa."
146
00:06:06,230 --> 00:06:10,429
I kind of feel like this is
a question for the director.
147
00:06:10,590 --> 00:06:16,329
At the end of the day, I
couldn't have imagined...
148
00:06:16,330 --> 00:06:17,709
...what the final
result would be.
149
00:06:18,450 --> 00:06:19,089
It's...
150
00:06:19,090 --> 00:06:21,029
...ultimately, it's the
director's responsibility.
151
00:06:21,090 --> 00:06:24,749
I'm just glad that, in this
movie, I managed to look as
152
00:06:24,750 --> 00:06:28,409
separate as possible from
everything else, so...
153
00:06:30,070 --> 00:06:31,861
(Razlogova) It makes total
sense for the song to come at
154
00:06:31,862 --> 00:06:33,653
the end, because it's supposed
to force the viewer to
155
00:06:33,654 --> 00:06:35,449
sit through the whole
movie to get to it.
156
00:06:35,590 --> 00:06:37,889
Since "Viktor Tsoi" is billed
fourth in the opening credits,
157
00:06:37,890 --> 00:06:40,189
that is, with the other
leads, people, of course,
158
00:06:40,190 --> 00:06:42,489
will want to wait for
him to appear onscreen.
159
00:06:42,550 --> 00:06:44,069
If you put the song at
the beginning, what if
160
00:06:44,070 --> 00:06:44,829
they leave right after?
161
00:06:45,230 --> 00:06:47,089
But this way, they'll sit
through the whole thing,
162
00:06:47,090 --> 00:06:48,949
finally see him, and
leave only after that.
163
00:06:49,130 --> 00:06:50,709
That's how you get
the box office numbers.
164
00:06:50,830 --> 00:06:52,129
Sergei Solovyov...
165
00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:56,445
...at the Baskakov Institute,
at the Moscow Institute
166
00:06:56,446 --> 00:07:00,171
of Cinematography, he told
serious people, sociologists,
167
00:07:00,172 --> 00:07:03,897
art historians, film critics
that, when he needed viewers
168
00:07:03,898 --> 00:07:07,623
for a distributor-organized
screening of [the 1986 film]
169
00:07:07,624 --> 00:07:11,349
"Wild Pigeon," they "borrowed"
some soldiers, just in case,
170
00:07:11,350 --> 00:07:13,219
to fill out the audience.
171
00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,751
But when he needed a hundred
thousand extras for his Tsoi
172
00:07:17,752 --> 00:07:19,709
concert sequence [in "Assa"],
173
00:07:19,930 --> 00:07:20,949
(Tsoi) Not a hundred, ten.
174
00:07:21,450 --> 00:07:23,235
(Sholokhov) Right, ten
thousand extras for the
175
00:07:23,236 --> 00:07:24,129
Tsoi concert sequence,
176
00:07:24,270 --> 00:07:26,269
Tsoi just shrugged and
said, no problem, you
177
00:07:26,270 --> 00:07:27,269
just provide security.
178
00:07:27,850 --> 00:07:28,409
Is that right?
179
00:07:29,150 --> 00:07:32,895
Well, I've never been that
cocky, so I didn't say
180
00:07:32,896 --> 00:07:34,769
anything like that.
181
00:07:35,450 --> 00:07:38,429
The only thing was, I hoped
that the people who liked
182
00:07:38,430 --> 00:07:41,409
our band—I thought there
were a lot of them in Moscow.
183
00:07:42,190 --> 00:07:44,589
And I thought that when
they found out about the
184
00:07:44,590 --> 00:07:45,789
concert, they would come.
185
00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:51,259
That's why I suggested we hold
a concert, a free concert,
186
00:07:54,740 --> 00:07:58,059
And shoot that sequence
during the show.
187
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:01,899
And, well, people came.
188
00:08:05,020 --> 00:08:07,499
I didn't say anything about
them providing security
189
00:08:07,500 --> 00:08:08,739
or anything like that.
190
00:08:08,860 --> 00:08:10,569
I don't know
anything about that.
This eight-minute interview took place in September 1988 on a cruise ship named after the famed Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) chartered for Odesa’s Golden Duke Film Festival. Bathed in the bright Odesa sun, journalist Sergei Sholokhov (1958-) spoke with rock musician Viktor Tsoi (1962-1990) and film critic Natalia Razlogova (1956-) about the insurmountable generational tensions within the perestroika-era Soviet film industry.
Tsoi was in Odesa to promote Rashid Nugmanov’s (1954-) film The Needle (Igla, 1988) as it made its domestic festival circuit debut. The conversation with Sholokhov centers on Tsoi’s sense of incongruency among his fellow festival attendees. Both the rock musician and Razlogova maintain that Tsoi, as a public figure, and The Needle, as a cultural phenomenon and cinematic text, exist outside mainstream Soviet film discourse—a situation that has made attending the Golden Duke a less-than-pleasant experience (“this is not our jam”). Razlogova invokes Tsoi’s fame and influence as the Soviet Union’s ultimate rock icon, contrasting his status with the stylistically and thematically unadventurous fare the film festival has chosen to showcase. For Razlogova, all the Golden Duke has to offer are unfashionable “dad movies” (papino kino). Even the event’s younger participants—apart from herself, Tsoi, and Nugmanov, of course—are, she says, artificially compelled to look and act passé.
Sholokhov—whose later claim to fame was engineering the notorious “Lenin Was a Mushroom” (1991) television hoax with avant-garde composer and professional trickster Sergei Kuryokhin (1954-1996)—names celebrated Soviet filmmaker Eldar Ryazanov (1927-2015), who apparently received fewer interview requests than Tsoi, as a point of contrast to the young rocker. Tsoi and Razlogova are visibly unimpressed, insisting that they, and Nugmanov’s film, ended up at the festival “by accident.” Asked if he has been attending screenings, Tsoi remarks vaguely, “I try…I try.” It transpires that only one film at the festival has piqued his interest so far: Leningrad director Oleg Teptsov’s (1954-) historical horror flick Mister Designer (Gospodin Oformitel’, 1987), which he and Razlogova regard as a similar “fly in the ointment” to Nugmanov’s creation. This film, Razlogova remarks, has been “passed over in silence”—as though the people who viewed it had absolutely nothing to say.
The pair’s unwillingness to align themselves with even the “avant-garde” elements in contemporary Soviet cinema (which Razlogova deems just as stodgy as their more “commercial” counterparts), and their phlegmatic responses to Sholokhov’s many provocations, reflect the generalized despondency and disenfranchisement of late-Soviet youth. The upheavals of perestroika forced the “last Soviet generation,” as anthropologist Alexei Yurchak would term them, to navigate the uncomfortable and newly bewildering cultural protocols of what they perceived as the distant past.