Mikhail Gorbachev’s far-reaching political reforms of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s heralded the end of the Cold War & the beginning of a new kind of “openness” (glasnost) between the USSR & the rest of the world. While capitalist countries in the West celebrated the new age, it was a time of massive social, political & cultural upheaval for many citizens of the Soviet states; the effect on Soviet cinema was also profound. The era gave birth to a new genre of literature & cinema, “Chernukha” – in which the enforced optimism of official Soviet culture was replaced with a kind of pessimistic neo-realism, unwavering in its critique of Soviet society.

Vasili Pichul’s Little Vera & Rashid Nugmanov’s The Needle are prime examples of this trend & were box-office smashes upon their release, facing head-on the previously taboo subjects of explicit sex (Little Vera) & drug-taking (The Needle). At the opposite end of the spectrum, other filmmakers were creating fantastical, otherworldly cinema which, whilst still containing political content, replaced the dismal housing estates of their contemporaries with hyper-stylised & mythic adventures in narrative & form. Andrei Tarkovsky’s phenomenal expatriate work The Sacrifice (made in exile) & Aleksandr Sokurov’s Days of the Eclipse sit on this side of the fence. Covering both the dazzling & distressing, this season is a historical collage of the fragmented societies under Perestroika’s gaze.

7:00 - THE SACRIFICE
Andrei Tarkovsky (1986) 149 mins PG

Tarkovsky’s final film, made when he knew he was dying of cancer, manages to say & do more in a single shot (most astonishingly so in its justly famous opening & closing extreme long takes) than most movies do over their entire length. Set on the Swedish island of Fårö, the iconic home of Ingmar Bergman, the film is overwhelming in its originality, spirituality, sense of composure, & hallucinatory power. An homage to the great Swedish director, it features Bergman favourite Erland Josephson. Photographed by Sven Nykvist.

CTEQ Annotation:
'The Sacrifice' by Gino Moliterno

9:40 - THE NEEDLE
Rashid Nugmanov (1988) 81 mins M

Taking first prize at the Nuremberg Film Festival & seen by over 30 million people upon its release, Nugmanov’s searing film was also one of the first to tackle the controversial issue of drug addiction in the Soviet Union. When Moro (Viktor Tsoy) visits an old girlfriend (Marina Smirnova) he discovers her descent into morphine addiction & decides to take on the criminals behind her exploitation. A grimy, rock-infused time-capsule of Soviet society amidst Perestroika.

35mm print courtesy of NFSA.

7:00 - FREEDOM IS PARADISE
Sergei Bodrov (1989) 76 mins

Interned in a strict reform school for young offenders in the remote northern Soviet Russian Arctic province of Archangelsk, 13-year-old Sasha escapes crippling institutionalisation to search for a father he does not remember. Set against the backdrop of stunning natural wilderness & the urban grime of the Russian underclass during the Soviet system’s definitive collapse, Sasha’s courage & determination to fulfill his dream of freedom illuminate this compelling story. Bodrov’s (Mongol, Prisoner of the Mountains) international breakthrough.

8:25 DAYS OF THE ECLIPSE
Alexandr Sokurov (1988) 133 mins

The first of Sokurov’s (Mother & Son, Russian Ark) features to be widely seen in the West, this strangely hallucinatory work is loosely based on a sci-fi novel by the Strugatsky brothers (one of their earlier novels was filmed by Tarkovsky as Stalker). Shot through a burnished golden haze, the film conveys a devastating sense of alienation & a strange sense of intimacy as it follows the life of a Russian doctor studying a hereditary disease in Soviet Central Asia. It potently illustrates why critics now widely claim Sokurov as Tarkovsky’s heir.

7:00 - LITTLE VERA
Vasili Pichul (1988) 110 mins

Made during the key period of Gorbachev’s “glasnost” when filmmakers were given a new freedom to graphically describe the starkness of Soviet social realities. Pichul’s stunning film is set in the bleak industrial Ukrainian town of Zhdanov. It follows Vera, who struggles to define herself beyond the values of the Old Regime administered by the State & her family. This low-budget, highly successful film was written by Mariya Khmelik (Pichul’s wife) & captures the poverty of contemporary Soviet life while truthfully discussing censorship, violence, societal dysfunction & sexuality.

9:00 - COLD SUMMER OF 1953
Aleksandr Proshkin (1987) 101 mins

Described by many as a Soviet Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, this tale of a small town’s solution to its victimisation by bandits ended up being a massive success at the Soviet box-office. Proshkin’s film contains all of the generic thrills of its filmic cousins whilst managing to provide a gutsy critique of the Soviet system at both the time it is set (just after Stalin’s death) & during its release in the wake of Gorbachev’s fateful reforms.