Russian Lives (The Russians & Living in Russia)
‘Encounters with Russians from six different generations help us get to know a Russia beyond Moscow and the Kremlin. Away from the 75th Victory Day parade and displays of military might, we meet the people of Russia. They tell us of a nation poised between tradition and the future.’
The Russians 2 x
For the German broadcaster DW, Juri Rescheto ( Twitter, profile) traveled through Russia to create the documentary described above. The lives of ordinary Russians, in two parts, titled The Russians – an intimate journey through Russia (2020, 2 x 42 m).
Living in Russia 6 x
More depth in Living in Russia, ‘A journey through Russia from cradle to grave.’ Each of the six episodes highlights a different stage of life. Music by Shortparis.
Naturally starting with birth (21 m)
and then childhood (23 m)
and youth (25 m).
Then adulthood (25 m),
old age (25 m)
and death (22 m), though that is hard to call a stage of life.
More
Country
The Netherlands holds a unique place in the Russian imagination. This is how our country, and we, are viewed through Russian eyes.
An interview becomes legendary when it gets its own page on
Wikipedia. On February 6, 2024, Tucker Carlson spoke with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The report (127 minutes) offers a good, or at least broad, opportunity to hear the Russian perspective on the war against Ukraine.
What we would call ’tokkies’ or ‘gabbers’, and what elsewhere might be referred to as white trash or hooligans – in Russia, these are called gopniki. Folk culture in a tracksuit.
Since the age of sixteen, Игорь Мухин (1961) has been taking photographs. Armed with a
Смена-8М camera, he started his journey. So, when he found himself among artists and musicians in the 1980s, he already had a trained eye – and a better camera. Mukhin (sometimes Moukhin) witnessed major changes and began documenting them.
Freedom of speech is decreasing everywhere, though the reasons vary by region. Meanwhile, Big Tech’s power is growing, along with its interference. In this new era, a nearly forgotten Soviet answer is reemerging: samizdat, the underground DIY press and distribution network.
Every country has a flag and a coat of arms. The Netherlands has a lion, France has a rooster, New Zealand has a kiwi, and the United States has a bald eagle. In Russia, it’s an eagle with two heads and three crowns, and a man on a horse who has just killed a dragon with a spear.
