Many Soviet movies were communist parables masquerading as normal life. No surprise there. From what I am told, Russian film underwent a "renaissance" after the fall of the Soviet Union. Also not particularly surprising.
I saw one of these "new Russian" films on television a few weeks ago. My Russian is stilly fuzzy at best, but I could gather that the disjointed images I saw were the result of the various characters being hypnotized. You see a overweight, balding, aging man rocking out to a full concert hall in one scene, which cuts to the same man dressed in a dignified business suit. In the next scene, it appears some sort of "Miss USSR" pageant is going on: many women in bikini bottoms and a sash with some Soviet republic's name on it standing on a stage with some announcer pointing to men in the front row who would stand and wave. It all seemed so typical, except for the whole uncensored nudity bit (on public television at breakfasttime with five-year-old Dima next to me). Miss "Rossiya" (Russian for "Russia") was introduced, so perhaps she's won? She says a little bit about herself, and then men in the audience start calling out numbers. Is this an auction? Is this her score? Who knows. Finally, the calling stops, and a masked man is called to the front. He approached Miss Rossiya and the announcer, and then he rips off his mask. Miss Rossiya gasps. "It's my father," she cries. "Nyet," he says, before grabbing her and violently suckling her. I just about choked on my cereal. Dima acts as though nothing is amiss. I never did figure out just quite what was going on, as I decided homework seemed to be a better option than watching tv at that moment.
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