Maybe you are familiar with this one:
Russia had hope in the early 90s and that hope faded. Despite Yeltsin and Gorbachev's best efforts, Russia became a bloodthirsty dictatorship.
This is a tasteless lie in this context. Curtis offers one of his weakest works at the worst possible time. His exposé on 85 to 99 is skin deep. Gorbachev whipping up ethnic hatred in Vilnius is absent. The Alma Ata, Tbilisi and Latvian killings are downplayed or absent. The meteorological engineering that kept Chornobyl radiation in Ukraine and Belarus is absent. Yeltsin invading and occupying Transnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia goes unmentioned. We are given the image of Russia sliding into the war in Chechnya and yet prior wars are absent.
Rashism, Russian fascism, has been present from Tsarist times till today. Curtis, who has offered such in depth explorations of the Western psyche with Can't Get You Out of My Head and The Century of The Self fails to offer anything but a catalogue of miseries hitting Russia. He presents a story akin to lost innocence and lost hope, but in reality Russia remained an outwardly aggressive, violent, rashist nation. Curtis has offered us an irrelevant documentary for understanding Russia today. Nothing was gained nor learnt from this era. As ever Russian history is written as a story of victimhood that Curtis does not question. Why did the Russian people stay quiet during ethnic cleansings in Abkhazia and Transnistria? Why does Curtis not explore racial hierarchy within Russia? Why is Russian nationalism not explored when it is so relevant to the war in Chechnya or figures such as Zhirinovsky and Putin? What of the anti-humanist ideology present in Russia that explains a degree of sacrifice for the nation? So many simple elements are missing or barely touched upon.
An incomplete documentary like this is an insult to victims in Ukraine, Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova and beyond. It is also a disservice for Russians fighting to change their country. If you want to understand Russia, I suggest Timothy Snyder. This film still has fascinating images, beautiful montage and offers a chance to learn new facts if you know more about the context of Europe and Russia. But if you are European, I suggest discovering European culture and history, learning what ties us to Ukraine and how Russia sees all of Europe as its backyard.
This is a tasteless lie in this context. Curtis offers one of his weakest works at the worst possible time. His exposé on 85 to 99 is skin deep. Gorbachev whipping up ethnic hatred in Vilnius is absent. The Alma Ata, Tbilisi and Latvian killings are downplayed or absent. The meteorological engineering that kept Chornobyl radiation in Ukraine and Belarus is absent. Yeltsin invading and occupying Transnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia goes unmentioned. We are given the image of Russia sliding into the war in Chechnya and yet prior wars are absent.
Rashism, Russian fascism, has been present from Tsarist times till today. Curtis, who has offered such in depth explorations of the Western psyche with Can't Get You Out of My Head and The Century of The Self fails to offer anything but a catalogue of miseries hitting Russia. He presents a story akin to lost innocence and lost hope, but in reality Russia remained an outwardly aggressive, violent, rashist nation. Curtis has offered us an irrelevant documentary for understanding Russia today. Nothing was gained nor learnt from this era. As ever Russian history is written as a story of victimhood that Curtis does not question. Why did the Russian people stay quiet during ethnic cleansings in Abkhazia and Transnistria? Why does Curtis not explore racial hierarchy within Russia? Why is Russian nationalism not explored when it is so relevant to the war in Chechnya or figures such as Zhirinovsky and Putin? What of the anti-humanist ideology present in Russia that explains a degree of sacrifice for the nation? So many simple elements are missing or barely touched upon.
An incomplete documentary like this is an insult to victims in Ukraine, Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova and beyond. It is also a disservice for Russians fighting to change their country. If you want to understand Russia, I suggest Timothy Snyder. This film still has fascinating images, beautiful montage and offers a chance to learn new facts if you know more about the context of Europe and Russia. But if you are European, I suggest discovering European culture and history, learning what ties us to Ukraine and how Russia sees all of Europe as its backyard.