Dovlatov film by Alexei German Jr.
One of the highlights of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival was the film Dovlatov, directed by Alexei German Jr. It was screened in the main competition program. A. German Jr. is not a Berlinale newcomer — his film Under the Electric Clouds won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for Cinematography.
Sergei Dovlatov is a rather well-known writer in Russia, but not so famous in the West, and is mostly associated with the circle of friends of Joseph Brodsky. Alexei German chose to depict only four days of Sergei Dovlatov’s life in 1971. The film was a co-production between Russia, Poland and Serbia. The cinematographer was Łukasz Żal, known for his work on Oscar winner Ida.
The film is made in a non-hurried pace. What is depicted is the everyday life of a writer who unsuccessfully tries to get published, while working as a journalist. The first impression after watching this film is that the director intentionally exaggerated the misery of Soviet-era life. The scenery is too bleak and life is too poor, for example, later in his life Sergei Dovlatov wrote in a letter that his flat in St. Petersburg was better than his American flat. Also the depiction is not historically accurate. This concerns the small details such as styles of cars and important events described in the film. In particular, the episode with the officers of OBKhSS (Department Against Misappropriation of Socialist Property) chasing the poor artist, portrayed by Danila Kozlovsky, with red IDs is completely fantasy. First of all, OBKhSS was an organization which only investigated large-scale economical crimes and it was out of their jurisdiction to chase after petty criminals. Another segment with the suicide of an office worker does not have any factual basis concerning Dovlatov’s real life or have anything to do with his writings. Also, neither Sergei Dovlatov’s heavy drinking nor womanizing is shown in the film, as everyone else imbibes except him. Dovlatov tries to impose the point of view that the artists who were not union members were nothing. However, this is not true.
German obviously wanted to present Sergei Dovlatov as a victim of the Soviet regime. However, he was not a rebel or a non-conformist as for example Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. Dovlatov lived in Russia by it’s rules and legally emigrated.. He worked as a journalist and wrote commissioned articles. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was physically thrown out of the Soviet Union and stayed a non-conformist till the end of his life.
Dovlatov film by Alexei German Jr.
A person who did not live in the Soviet time and is not too familiar with the life there, after watching the film can receive a false impression of that period. At the press conference German defended modern Russia. Somehow his film illustrates the contrast between 1970s Soviet era and Putin’s Russia, where, as German said there is no antisemitism, no censorship. However in Soviet times Russia was more rich with talents than today. I told Alexei German Jr. about this when we met in Berlin on the 18th of February 2018. There is no plot or dramatic conflict in the film and it is too long to hold the viewers attention. It is quite natural that a writer wants to get published, but 99% of the time it does not happen very quickly and does not have anything to do with Soviet reality. The question rises about the intentions of the film; perhaps for some people it is beneficial to represent Soviet Russia as a miserable and scary place with no creative freedom. At the press conference German spoke that spoke that some people and forces try to demonize Russia. While it is partially true, with this film he himself demonizes the Soviet Union and with it, inadvertently, modern Russia, because present-day Russia inherited a lot from the Soviet times.
Some of the positive aspects of the picture include the acting of Milan Marić, who is charismatic and creates an interesting character, however according to the testimonies of his many friends, the real Dovlatov was much more brutal and humoristic. The most vivid supporting role was by Danila Kozlovsky, who played the tragic role of an artist who earned money by selling goods on the black market. He did the best he could with his part, although the events happening to him are pure fantasy.
However, it is surprising that so much attention is devoted to a writer who is not particularly special and his life was quite mediocre. The suddenly renewed interest towards him can be explained with the dumbening down of the general population as the simple and unsophisticated style is more approachable for the modern audience of readers.
A.German tries to convince the audience that Dovlatov was not published because of that particular time of stagnation when talents were not appreciated and the arts were controlled by people who did not understand anything in it. It is interesting to compare the film with modern Russia, where there are a lot less of great writers and directors then in the period of stagnation, despite German saying that there is no censorship today. That Dovlatov considered himself to be a better poet than Yevtushenko is his own very personal opinion, which is very far removed from reality. Only time can prove if Dovlatov will continue to be a popular writer alongside the great writers of Russia. The fate of an artist or a poet is a difficult one in all countries, and many writers superior to Dovlatov experienced hardships with publishing their works.
The Soviet time is shown as shabby, hopeless and wretched, which is also blown out of proportion in the picture. At the press conference, German said that there is no censorship or anti-Semitism today in Russia. But in reality, the time of the 1960-1970s bore the peaks of Russian creativity in all fields of art. All the best writers, poets, ballet dancers, directors, all of them worked in the 1960-1970s, including Alexei German Sr., without whom there would be no Alexei Alexeevich German. Lack of open censorship does not equal the flourishing of arts.
Alexei German Jr.
During the festival, I saw Alexei German Jr. and expressed some of my criticism, but he was not prepared for this and took it too personally.
In my interview with him, German became very offended and defensive when I criticized Dovlatov and German’s depiction of Soviet Russia. He said that this was how he saw it, despite only being born in 1976. He did not like that I compared Dovlatov with Nureyev, who truly risked his head when he defected.
He did not wish to discuss my comparisons over who suffered more in that time. However another film does automatically spring to mind, The End of a Great Era by Stanislav Govorukhin, which in my view is more close to reality and more artistic. It depicts how the 1960s freedom of speech started to end. The film also reflected the romanticism of that time, and not only it’s problems. The was based on Dovlatov’s writings, however it is not a biographical film. 1960s Russia is not shown as a miserable time in that picture and probably it is the reason that it did not get into he international film festival circuit. Govorukhin is significantly older than German Jr. and is able to remember that time. The film Dovlatov on the other hand paints a bleak picture of that time and tries to convince the audience that times in Russia have changed to the better.
Because of how we were discussing the matter of free speech, we also discussed the case of Kirill Serebrennikov. In this matter we agreed completely; Alexei German Jr. is also sure that his arrest was revenge for the film The Student. He said that he asked president Putin to free Serebrennikov and was also one of the people who have their word for him. The question arises, is it really possible to praise modern Russia’s freedom of speech when a famous film director receives jail time for obviously false accusations as revenge for a movie he made? I think that a film like Dovlatov is beneficial for both Russia and abroad because of how it shows how bad Soviet Union was for a creative person. It would be more interesting to make such a movie with a contemporary setting of either Russia or Western country. Dovlatov had the opportunity to write, but people who work full-time every day simply do not have this possibility. But of course, this does not affect the creative elite, to which Alexei German Jr. belongs.
I was surprised that he tried to make a hero out of Sergei Dovlatov for his immigration. He immigrated legally and nothing threatened him. I compared the emigration of Nureyev, who was given a seven year sentence for betrayal of homeland. On the other hand, Dovlatov peacefully followed his wife and child. If he had not become an alcoholic, he would have been alive during the Perestroika and could have returned to Russia as Edouard Limonov did. Because of this the film lacks drama, despite German’s attempts of creating tragedy with fictional characters where there is none.
Alexei German Jr., has a great cast in the film, which includes newcomer Milan Marić, and also well-known actors Danila Kozlovsky, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Elena Lyadova. However, their parts are quite weak, in spite of the big potential of their actors. Kozlovsky, is especially unlucky lately with his roles – in the film Matilda he played the villain who was kept in an aquarium and later burned alive, the role was completely senseless and stupid. In the film Dovlatov, Danila Kozlovsky did his best, but his role was also absurd. Elena Lyadova had a completely insignificant part despite her great acting talent.
Overall Dovlatov is a mediocre film about a mediocre writer for a mediocre audience.
