Moscow Free Style
Moscow Free Style
Julia Ivanova’s “Moscow Free Style” film raised me from ashes to touch the pen first in last three years. I even dare write in English because I expect JP Fiket read it, and I need this part of audience. I recognized value of this topic once she announced it 2 years ago and now I finally saw it finished. The reader of these lines is expected to watch the film too as I am not going to re-tell the plot. Just feelings that it awoke in me. Long ago I expressed curiosity how would Americans immigrate to Ukraine, apply for resident status and Russian courses. And Julia found the similar line of thought materialized. I exercised the powerful feeling of recognition or say social identification, though at times upside down. Fluent English speaker genuinely exclaims “Ё моё”, joyfully hops scanning “Вот такая хуйня…” and performs Tsoy that died 10 years before he came into the country. My idiotic wishes came true! For the same reason of standard reversion this will be reluctantly taken by local producers. Their national dignity is touched. Their national representative, man good for nothing, finds refuge abroad. On the other hand his figure re-animates the discredited idea of hippy that a human can really soar over commonness with a bottle of beer in his wings.
The title is highly matching. The heady spirit of freedom is a central subject. Americans suddenly find themselves in the paradise where they temporarily can be philosophers with a bottle of beer and not need to hurry anywhere. I had been in similar, circumstances first year of immigration on Canadian welfare, but that time was overshadowed by cultural shock and feeling of undemandedness. These people seem having none of the two. In the contrary they confess to start tasting earlier unknown association with people. Yes, this theme is greater than the ones of “I want a woman” and of the gay parenting and still greater by far than in the deaf performer’s story. Only her orphans are of the comparable scale.
18th August 2006, Vancouver.