On August 19th, 1991 a group of operators for "Lendokfilm" went out to the streets to shoot one of the most significant events in the newest Russian history. They were the eyes of common folks, the eyes that almost 30 years later let us see the story of August Putsch - the Soviet coup d'état attempt. The film is a chronicle of events in Leningrad starting with the crowd trying to figure out what is going on, protests, barricade construction, and ending with the declaration of the members of GKCHP as the traitors of the nation. This historic moment is often referred to as the death of Russian communism.
Sergei Loznitsa, a famous Ukrainian film director, made a successful attempt at demonstrating the actual chain of events four months after which the Soviet Union was no more. He does so by focusing the viewer's attention at the protesters, while carefully inserting pieces of information that allow us to construct our own version of Putsch.
The people that are depicted in the documentary are the main storytellers. Their appearance tells us a lot, young and old people wearing jeans, lush hair, brightly-colored jackets - expressing their readiness to live in a democratic country. Fair enough, this was the first real opportunity to speak up for political rights within 70 years. There is, however, some history attached to it. Prior to the Putsch, the USSR underwent a series of political reforms, known as Perestroika and Glasnost, that aimed liberalization, freedom of speech, and overall democratization under the country's first and last president Gorbachev's rule. His initiative faced a lot of critique and was often considered as a sign of weakness from the communist party. Consequently, 8 high-level communist officials have created the committee on the state of emergency (GKCHP) to overthrow Gorbachev.
Even though the crowd was exercising their democratic rights by gathering, protesting, and building barricades, it is important to mention that people were clearly supporting the current government, not the GKCHP. Seems pretty clear - nobody wants communism anymore. But did the people know what they are getting instead? Sitting here in 2020, knowing the actual outcome of the events, another question appears - even if there is democracy on the streets, is there democracy inside those buildings?
Speaking of the inside of those buildings, it's no secret that KGB was always famous for their ability to do things behind the curtain. "Volodya! Volodya!" - says an unknown voice to a rushing figure in front of Anatoliy Sobchak, the figure that strongly resembles the current president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, a member of KGB back then. Volodya doesn't respond. Next scene we see them rushing out of there. In a blink of an eye. We can only guess about what happened in the building that Sobchak and the company entered, but the event that happened there has probably defined the nearest 30 years of the political life of the Russian Federation, as well as the name of the documentary. Loznitsa wants us to decide what kind of event do we want it to be on our own, but the fact is - it happened.
When assessing the cinematographic decisions, it is important to notice that there are two key camera plans - a detailed, close view, and a wide view. It allows the viewer to see both the scale of crowd gatherings and assess closely the appearance of separate individuals that constitute this crowd. The editing of the documentary also plays a significant part in connecting the scenes so they would make sense. As we see, the scenes follow the chronology and are separated with a long black screen with Swan Lake playing in the background. Even though it may seem like Loznitsa's participation in this movie is minimal, the scenes are cut masterfully by a Cannes festival invitee.
In Mikhail Yampolskiy's article The Country Where Ressentiment Won, Yampolskiy states that the defactualization in Russia has reached the stage of destruction of the government and society. In other words, the resentment of Russian people, that is based on feeling helpless and incapable of even the smallest change in their own country, is now a driving force of the deconstruction of the state. This process, however, began right there, in the Event. "Let's call them lies. Lies. About. That. Time." - said Loznitsa in his interview one year before the release of the film. Lies about that time - a good summary of Loznitsa's documentary career, he is indeed famous for being able to bring up the lies to the screen. Lies that look so small and innocent there, somewhere on his tapes, while getting bigger and bigger as we look at them closer and trying to fill the puzzle of today's reality with them. This is probably how it works with lies. Those sweet little lies that always favor the present, but never the future.
Sergei Loznitsa, a famous Ukrainian film director, made a successful attempt at demonstrating the actual chain of events four months after which the Soviet Union was no more. He does so by focusing the viewer's attention at the protesters, while carefully inserting pieces of information that allow us to construct our own version of Putsch.
The people that are depicted in the documentary are the main storytellers. Their appearance tells us a lot, young and old people wearing jeans, lush hair, brightly-colored jackets - expressing their readiness to live in a democratic country. Fair enough, this was the first real opportunity to speak up for political rights within 70 years. There is, however, some history attached to it. Prior to the Putsch, the USSR underwent a series of political reforms, known as Perestroika and Glasnost, that aimed liberalization, freedom of speech, and overall democratization under the country's first and last president Gorbachev's rule. His initiative faced a lot of critique and was often considered as a sign of weakness from the communist party. Consequently, 8 high-level communist officials have created the committee on the state of emergency (GKCHP) to overthrow Gorbachev.
Even though the crowd was exercising their democratic rights by gathering, protesting, and building barricades, it is important to mention that people were clearly supporting the current government, not the GKCHP. Seems pretty clear - nobody wants communism anymore. But did the people know what they are getting instead? Sitting here in 2020, knowing the actual outcome of the events, another question appears - even if there is democracy on the streets, is there democracy inside those buildings?
Speaking of the inside of those buildings, it's no secret that KGB was always famous for their ability to do things behind the curtain. "Volodya! Volodya!" - says an unknown voice to a rushing figure in front of Anatoliy Sobchak, the figure that strongly resembles the current president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, a member of KGB back then. Volodya doesn't respond. Next scene we see them rushing out of there. In a blink of an eye. We can only guess about what happened in the building that Sobchak and the company entered, but the event that happened there has probably defined the nearest 30 years of the political life of the Russian Federation, as well as the name of the documentary. Loznitsa wants us to decide what kind of event do we want it to be on our own, but the fact is - it happened.
When assessing the cinematographic decisions, it is important to notice that there are two key camera plans - a detailed, close view, and a wide view. It allows the viewer to see both the scale of crowd gatherings and assess closely the appearance of separate individuals that constitute this crowd. The editing of the documentary also plays a significant part in connecting the scenes so they would make sense. As we see, the scenes follow the chronology and are separated with a long black screen with Swan Lake playing in the background. Even though it may seem like Loznitsa's participation in this movie is minimal, the scenes are cut masterfully by a Cannes festival invitee.
In Mikhail Yampolskiy's article The Country Where Ressentiment Won, Yampolskiy states that the defactualization in Russia has reached the stage of destruction of the government and society. In other words, the resentment of Russian people, that is based on feeling helpless and incapable of even the smallest change in their own country, is now a driving force of the deconstruction of the state. This process, however, began right there, in the Event. "Let's call them lies. Lies. About. That. Time." - said Loznitsa in his interview one year before the release of the film. Lies about that time - a good summary of Loznitsa's documentary career, he is indeed famous for being able to bring up the lies to the screen. Lies that look so small and innocent there, somewhere on his tapes, while getting bigger and bigger as we look at them closer and trying to fill the puzzle of today's reality with them. This is probably how it works with lies. Those sweet little lies that always favor the present, but never the future.