The film is a seamlessly woven montage of home movies, newsreel excerpts and Ms. Hessman’s extensive footage of the five, now grown up and living their lives. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.
They are both history teachers at a Moscow school. Movie Review My Perestroika Directed by Robin Hessman 2010, 87 mins, Unrated In 1949, essays by six ex-Communists about why they quit their pro-Moscow parties appeared in the book The God That Failed. Year: 2010. In Russian, with English subtitles.
Reports of social problems in the United States only reinforced her certainty that she was lucky to live in a nation promoted as “the country of happy childhood.”.
...profoundly insightful and overall stupendous...My Perestroika must be considered one of the year's best documentaries. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. MY PERESTROIKA follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow. " But at age 14 they all joined the Komsomol, the Communist youth group that was the final stage before joining the Party, since it was simply unthinkable not to join. | But she says she felt safe because most of the violence was directed by one faction against another. The most successful of the five, Andrei Yevgrafov, developed a chain of high-end men’s wear stores and lives in a luxurious condominium.
He just opened his 17th store selling exclusive French men's shirts and ties.
She voices a certain nostalgia for Communism, because in those days, she insists, life was less stressful. | . The 1970s-era home movies featuring well-scrubbed, rosy-cheeked kids playing in the snow or at the beach would not be out of place in an American family. During the crisis, every channel on Russian television showed the ballet “Swan Lake,” a practice the State followed during major events. . Credit: Courtesy of Red Square Productions. As a teenager in the USSR, he and his friends were intent on subverting the system. Single mother Olga, who was the prettiest girl in the class, lives in her childhood apartment with her sister and their adult children. 57, was such a starry-eyed goody-goody that when the national anthem was played on television, she stood and saluted. Synopsis
Growing up in typical Soviet fashion, the five progressed through the hierarchy of youth organizations, but for some of them, the innocence of childhood gave way to the skepticism of adolescence. Five classmates go from living sheltered childhoods to experiencing the hopes of Gorbachevâ s reforms and the… This film is not rated. Looking at his son, he remarks, "Of course these kids don't understand that -- and thank God they don't . Synopsis Rack up 500 points and you'll score a $5 reward for more movies. The Russian children were told, as were their American counterparts, that their government wanted only peace; it was the other side that was the dangerous aggressor. “My Perestroika” gives you a privileged sense of learning the history of a place not from a book but from the people who lived it. Now documentarian Robin Hessman, an Academy Award-winning Yank who spent years in Moscow, has directed/produced My Perestroika, an 87-minute film about five Muscovite classmates who grew … Watching it is a little like attending a party in an unfamiliar city and discovering the place's secrets from the guests.”. A Navajo coal miner struggles with his part in the destruction of a sacred mountain. Ruslan was a famous Russian punk rock musician who now plays the banjo in the metro for money. But in the troubled Yeltsin years and under the increasingly autocratic regime of Vladimir Putin, Russia has not had the future the couple imagined. "What we had before -- that was beyond the pale, beyond good and evil. Young Soviet Pioneers on Red Square during a May Day demonstration, Moscow, 1977. Earn 125 points on every ticket you buy. Their childhood classmates provide their own perspectives. Credit: Courtesy of Red Square Productions. As seen in My Perestroika.
Through first-person testimony, vérité footage and vintage home movies, this beautifully crafted documentary reveals a Russia rarely seen on film. I began to think about a film that might answer those questions in a more complicated way — a film that could bring the experiences of that place, in the past and the present, to audiences.
" But stagnation had a positive side. Five classmates go from living sheltered childhoods to experiencing the hopes of Gorbachevâs reforms and the confusion of the USSRâs dissolution, to searching for their places in todayâs Moscow. Woven from nearly 200 hours of footage of former Russian schoolmates filmed from 2005 to 2008, hundreds of reels of home movies from the 1970s and 1980s and dozens of Soviet propaganda films of the era, My Perestroika is a nuanced account of a tumultuous time -- the last years of the Soviet system -- as experienced by a generation coming of age just as its country broke apart. But have those changes ultimately proved to be only superficial?
Learn more. They were the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. As seen in My Perestroika. Borya and Lyuba are married and have a son, Mark. Menu. Just coming of … "I simply was like everyone else," says Lyuba Meyerson, one of the women profiled in the film. Source USSR, Soviet Nostalgia On The Rise. Get your swag on with discounted movies to stream at home, exclusive movie gear, access to advanced screenings and discounts galore. Andrei has thrived in the new Russian capitalism and has just opened his 17th store of expensive French men’s shirts. Ask students to … It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. Parents Guide. Borya and Lyuba are married and have a son, Mark. Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. I don't know what's going to happen, but with the Internet, it's impossible to have a monopoly on information. If Mr. Meyerson is not happy about life under Vladimir V. Putin and Dmitri A. Medvedev, a time of aggressively showy patriotism, he doesn’t foresee a return to Communism. " to remind us that we are gazing into the looking-glass world of the last years of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, he rose to fame as a member of the wildly popular punk rock group NAIV.
These days, he gives banjo lessons and plays in the Moscow metro to make a living. They tell stories of two very different childhoods: Lyuba, the follower, once saluted the television when the Soviet anthem played, while Borya, who still sports a beard and ponytail, preferred to subvert the system whenever possible. And nobody knows more about that world -- and its sudden, spectacular crumbling -- than the generation of children pictured in the opening sequences of My Perestroika.
Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide.
Plot Keywords Opening as the Middle East is experiencing the same political convulsions that brought down the Soviet Union, “My Perestroika” is also astoundingly timely. My Perestroika is an intimate look at the last generation of Soviet children. The massed protesters, Mr. Yevgrafov suggests, were reacting more to the scarcity of food than to the threat of a return to Communism. Instead, Borya, Lyuba, Andrei, Olga and Ruslan share their personal stories. By the time Mikhail Gorbachev launched his programs of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) in 1986, in an effort to liberalize Soviet society, the five were young adults. In this film, there are no “talking head” historians, no expert witnesses, no omniscient narrator telling viewers how to interpret events. He grew up in an intellectual Jewish family. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow. It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. Meet the characters of My Perestroika. At the center of the film is a family.
They are the invisible “ordinary” people of Moscow – raising their own children in a world they couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams. One of the fascinating things about viewing My Perestroika is seeing how five different temperaments, revealed first in Soviet times, evolved as the Iron Curtain lifted. "By eighth or ninth grade," says Borya, "it became clear that people all around you were saying things that didn't correspond with reality. Use one of the film’s accompanying resources to learn about the issues and get involved. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Join FandangoVIP. Andrei has been successful in the new Russia. POV is a production of American Documentary, Inc. 57, are married with a precocious child. Their political paths came together just as their lives as idealistic college students did, but they are both dismayed as their hopes for a genuinely democratic and just society have been dashed. " he asks. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. Be the first to contribute!
Watching it is a little like attending a party in an unfamiliar city and discovering the place’s secrets from the guests. As Communism died, the widespread floundering for a new ideology to embrace led to vogues in hypnotic healing and church attendance.
Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. Ruslan Stupin, who for 12 years played in a punk-rock band, is a feisty rebel who lives off the grid and is seen busking in a Moscow subway station. As we are drawn into the fabric of their everyday lives, we hear stories of two very different Soviet childhoods: Lyuba was a conformist who would salute the TV when the Soviet hymn played, while Borya, living with the consequences of being Jewish, preferred to subvert the system whenever possible. The youngsters were well-fed and well-clothed, and their families took summer vacations at the beach. | Be the first to contribute! " Even Borya, who has Jewish roots and grew up more suspicious of the system, says, "It was childhood, so it was a happy time despite the whole USSR.". Olga Durikova, a subject of the documentary “My Perestroika,” in her kitchen in Moscow.
Borya and son Mark watching home movies of Borya's childhood during the 1970s in the USSR. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Olga, the prettiest girl in the class, is a single mother and works for a company that rents out billiard tables to bars and clubs all over Moscow. Create a class video inspired by the film My Perestroika. But the complexity of Russia and its people was impossible for me to sum up in a few words. My VIP Account.
Synopsis: 'My Perestroika' tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain.