Imaging Russia 2000: Film and Facts

Anna M. Lawton

Jan 2004 · New Academia Publishing, LLC

About this ebook

This book incorporates into an organic whole the realities of the 1990s in Russia, focusing on film production, the films themselves, and the socio-political-cultural context. It aims to provide a picture of Russia (with Moscow in the foreground) as the big stage on which the drama unfolded. The author discusses some eighty films made between 1990 and 2000. Many reflect the reality of the present day, either in dramatic or grotesque form. Others reassess the past, placing different spins on various epochs and figures according to the director's ideological orientation. Still others offer escapism into imaginary worlds. The films selected may vary in technical quality and depth of thought; they may be mainstream pictures, or art films. But taken together, they provide an eloquent portrait of Russia, entering the new millennium still in search of its true identity.

About the author

Anna Lawton is a specialist in Russian film. Professor Lawton teaches courses in visual culture and film studies at Georgetown University. Her publications include Before the Fall: Soviet Cinema in the Gorbachev Years (New Academia Publishing, 2004; originally Kinoglasnost: Soviet Cinema in Our Time, Cambridge Un. Press, 1992) and The Red Screen: Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema, ed. (Routledge, 1992).