Things Fall Apart

Decolonising the (Post-)Soviet Screen

Author

Heleen Gerritsen

Abstract

Taking as a starting point for reflection the late-Soviet Ukrainian feature film Rozpad (1990), which depicts the aftermath of perhaps the most significant environmental catastrophe of the 20th century and thus anticipates the protracted unravelling of the (post-)Soviet empire, this editorial introduction explores the themes of cultural and geopolitical disintegration. Heleen Gerritsen underscores the pressing necessity to reevaluate the cinematic legacy of the Soviet and post-Soviet eras within the context of global decolonisation processes. More urgent than ever, especially in light of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is the imperative to explore alternative forms of knowledge about regions that have endured historical subjugation. This necessitates a redirection of researchers’ and film festival programmers’ focus, a nuanced revision of (film) history, and the adoption of a new language in film studies and in the humanities in general. This editorial describes how, in the context of the symposium "Decolonizing the (Post)Soviet Screen" at the Central and Eastern European film festival goEast 2023, the idea for a publication project in collaboration with Apparatus was born. It provides a brief overview of the included articles and texts and gives a glimpse into the subsequent issue. The editorial is accompanied by previously unpublished archival photographs from the private collection of the cinematographer of the film Rozpad, Vasyl’ Trushkovs’kyi, which he took as preparation for the shootings in 1988-1989.

Keywords

Mikhailo Belikov, Vasyl’ Trushkovs’kyi, Ukraine, Central Asia, CIS, post-Soviet space, Chornobyl’, COVID, goEast Film Festival, decolonisation activism, war, boycott, disintegration, film market, film distribution.

Editorial

Rozpad / Decay (Mikhailo Belikov, 1990, Soviet Union, United States) was the title of one of several Perestroika-era films goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film screened in 2020, during a small window in summer when COVID-19 measures were temporarily lifted, and the German authorities allowed us to present the entire film programme accompanying the symposium “Film Heritage in Transition. Central and Eastern Europe 1985-1999” at Frankfurt am Main’s Film Museum.¹ The programme, curated by Prof. Schamma Shahadat and Dr. Margarete Wach, focused on the period of transition in Central and Eastern Europe during which film production, cultural politics, archives, and infrastructure, as well as individuals and societies at large, went through tremendous economic, political, cultural, and technological shifts.

The word 'rozpad' translates from Ukrainian as 'decay' (in the scientific, physical, and biological sense of the word) or 'collapse'. Indeed, Belikov’s film deals with the Chornobyl´ disaster – the first feature fiction film to critically and directly treat the issues (neglect, corruption, and societal collapse) leading up to one of the worst nuclear catastrophes ever. (Many scenes from the film were later used as inspiration (or indeed copied) by the creators of the HBO series Chernobyl (Craig Mazin, Johan Renck, USA, 2019) which – unlike Rozpad – gained millions of viewers worldwide). With some financial support from the goEast film festival, the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Centre digitised the film and provided a DCP for our symposium screening. Hopefully, in the future, the film will be distributed more widely.

After February 24, 2022, and the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, I have thought about this important film often. The societal collapse and decay of the 'wild' 1990s are a recurring topic in current post-Soviet cinema as well, with films like La Palisiada (Philip Sotnychenko, 2023, Ukraine), or the films of Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov. This can partly be explained by the fact that for the current generation of filmmakers, the 1990s were the years of their childhood and coming-of-age that they now look back on from their adult years. But the 1990s and the break-up of the Soviet Union was also the start of a complicated period of transformation, which as the war in Ukraine makes painfully clear, has not yet concluded.

The 2023 goEast symposium, which – almost inevitably – received the title “Decolonizing the (Post-)Soviet Screen” felt like the continuation of the 2020 event, dedicated to “Film Heritage in Transition”. The symposium is an annual interdisciplinary event that does not aspire to be purely academic, thus providing a unique environment where theory and practice can meet and put each other to the test. It is also a safe space for the exchange of ideas in very chaotic times which, on the international film festival circuit, have been dominated by the call to boycott Russian cinema. Over the course of four days in April 2023, scholars, filmmakers and cinephiles from various countries gathered in Wiesbaden, Germany, to discuss a wide array of related topics and watch an accompanying film program curated by Barbara Wurm and myself.

In the aftermath of February 24, 2022, the feeling of “things falling apart” became acute again. Not only the destruction of the war itself, but economic sanctions, a breakdown of infrastructure, international relations and communications all throughout the post-Soviet territory heavily shook the landscape and isolated the Russian Federation. Ukrainian film production came to a halt, as the country was being attacked by Russian troops, and Ukrainian filmmakers joined the army or fled abroad. With the help of international solidarity networks and grants, some Ukrainian films in post-production could be finished abroad, and the war continues to be documented by filmmakers who often risk losing their lives in the process. But the future of the Ukrainian film industry overall is unclear and it is indeed uncertain how the film industries in the post-Soviet region as a whole will develop in the future.

The Russian Federation continues to produce films, mostly for its internal market. A few months after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, a film adaptation of the popular Soviet cartoon Cheburashka hit the screens and became a box-office success to the extent that the producers and the distribution company Central Partnership are planning a sequel to come out in 2026.² In the meantime, Russian businesses are under sanctions and banned from the international film markets in Cannes and Berlin, although they continue to operate in other territories. For example, during the European Film Market (EFM) in 2023, Central Partnership notoriously rented a suite in the Ritz Carlton hotel next to the official Berlinale market venues and sent out its lineup to EFM participants, thus giving the impression they were officially accredited market visitors doing business as usual. Indeed, film rights for all CIS-states (including Ukraine and Central Asia) are still often sold to Russian distribution companies as a single package, making Hollywood titles available in dubbed Russian versions for several countries at once, and thus (legally) unavailable in Ukraine, since the licence trade between Russian and Ukrainian companies has – understandably – come to a complete hold. This issue was addressed by Ukrainian film professionals during various film industry panels over the course of 2022–2023 and discussed during the panels at the 2023 goEast Symposium as well.

The Baltic states have gone in a completely different direction. Relatively soon after their independence, they managed to set up infrastructure, provide state funding, and ensure that Baltic filmmakers have access to European Union funds and education, leading to a more Westernised film production culture. Central Asian states still rely on Soviet-era studios, like O'zbek Film, Kazakhfilm and Tajikfilm, but grassroots filmmaking initiatives develop alongside of it – usually without state funding, but with a large amount of freedom and international exchange. While state studios all over the territory continue their output of (mostly patriotic) films, and the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian University of Cinematography VGIK even opened a franchise branch in Tashkent, led by Moscow-trained Uzbek director Yusup Razykov,³ parallel initiatives like the DAVRA collective around Saodat Ismailova were invited to Documenta 15 and put on the (Western) map with works that alternate between cinema and video art and almost always touch on political and social issues.⁴