Chernovik (Rough Draft) : a colourful blockbuster based on the modish premise of alternate histories.
[Picture: kto-chto-gde.ru]`Which world would you choose? ` was the tag-line which appeared on the promotional posters in the metro about a month before this film’s release on 27th May this year. Best known for his dark fantasies Night Watch and Day Watch, (2004 and 2006 respectively) the fifty year old former doctor Sergey Lukyanenko has now seen his untranslated novel – Chernovik – from 13 years back also adapted for the screen.
This parallel worlds yarn has a 12+ certificate this time, but otherwise seems to be aiming at the same young adult audience.
Kirill, an ordinary young Muscovite (Nikita Volkov) who works for a computer games company, receives the shock of his life when he discovers one day that his whole identity has been erased from his known reality. A fellow gaming geek (Yevgeny Tkachuk) seems to be the only one to recognise him. Then, however a mysterious woman called Renata Ivanova welcomes him into a new role. He is now to be the curator of a way station straddling alternate variations of Moscow. His customers enter the water tower in which he resides and, should they show the right documents and pay, can exit out of another door straight in to a whole new version of reality. We glimpse a sun-soaked Moscow complete with palm trees along the river, a Moscow with steam punk airships crossing the skies, a variant of unreformed Stalinism, a sleek futuristic Chinese run Moscow, and so on.
Within all this kaleidoscopic adventure we are given a conventional romantic sub-plot as Kirrill pursues the same woman in different guises throughout switching between worlds. However, his friendship with the loyal and goofy coloured-shade- wearing fellow gamer packs much more impact.
The director Sergey Mokritsky made his name with the much more earthy DyenUchitelya (Teacher’s Day) (2012) but here he delivers the kind of glittery grandeur you would expect from a Lukyanenko product. It all gets very J.K. Rowling-meets-Bulgakov: in particular when there is a climatic showdown between the ruling `functionals`.
Apart from the giant killer matrioshka dolls – which are straight out of the sillier end of Doctor Who – the other most memorable thing in this flashy movie is that it graces the stately Lithuanian actress Severija Janusauskaite (last seen in a support role in satisfying psychological thriller Selfie) with a rather more fitting part as a superhuman supervisor.
Vintage garage rockers promote gleeful disorder among younger fans.
Photography by Iain Rodgers.
I have been among many gig goers in Kazan and Moscow to catch a bit of darkwave (Otto Dix), some grindcore ([Amatory]), some blues (Blues Gravity) and a bit of pop-rock (Gorod 312) but had not really been witness to any rUsSiAn PuNk. Until now that is.
In fact Russian punk rock has a longer history than you might expect. Many trace this genre’s origins back to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1979. And what if I told you that there was a punk band called Adolf Hitler from Siberia – in 1986!
Posledni Tank V Parizhe (Last Tank in Paris) – often abbreviated to P.T.V.P – were formed ten years later in 1996 and in fact they hail from the supposed birthplace of Russian punk. They are said have kept hold of some (whisper it) political dissent. As so many newer acts seem to fail in this regard, this would be worth seeing.
Their appearance in the capital on 16th September this year was not well publicised and even grabbing an advance ticket proved to be an obstacle course. The babaushka at the kiosk who would be the usual supplier swore blind that there was no such band on at the Red Club, and it was to that club that I had to go to in the end to get satisfaction.
Situated on Bolotnaya Nab on the bank of the River Moskva, this long established nightclub-cum restaurant serves as a place for big acts, with the emphasis on rock. This event was billed as Demokraticheskoi KonsertPo Zayavkam which I first took as a bold plea for a more representative government before realising that it had more the sense of `Due to popular demand. `
I estimate that the mixed sex and age audience that came in from the early autumn nippiness reached 800 or so. Few looked like hardcore punks: I espied a `Punk’s Not Dead` t-shirt and a `Motorhead `one and one guy with a mohican, but the rest of us had come as we were.
As we sipped our 400 rouble a throw Budweisers, a backstage projection behind the stage shone the initials P.T.V.P and we grew restless. They arrived at about 9.00 pm, an hour after the ticket time. This four piece string and drum outfit consist of Denis Krichov hitting the skins and adding to the vocals, Igor Nedviga on bass and also some vocals and Anton `Bender` Dokuchaev, the axeman. These came on first as the gathering chanted `P! T! V! P! `
Then, from the back of the stage, emerged Aleksei Nikonov, the poet and kingpin of the ensemble. No pretty boy, chunky and in a dark suit and shades he resembled a member of the Blues Brothers except for his slicked back hair and man-bun.
Nikonov greeted Moscow and they kick-started their two hour set. Their dirty sound was predictable for the most part: honed down energetic rock and roll (think The Damned era punk) and some more upbeat power pop but also some more thoughtful alternative rock interludes which brought to mind Magazine. This was a big sound for a four piece (I think I detected the use of a backing track only once). Some of their guitar work reached a divine level. Nikonov’s vocal delivery, on the other hand, aped the standard telegrammatic nagging of early British punk rock.
The musicians presented a nondescript appearance but Nikonov compensated for this by his `Red Indian` style circular stomping, his waving of a baton and by appearing to swig from a wine bottle (I say `appearing` because I believe that onstage drinking is banned in Russia. At least I have never seen it done for real).
The audience were the ones providing the main spectacle though: women gyrated like charmed snakes and I saw a guy held up by two walking sticks head banging with his dreadlocks flying everywhere. There was much in the way of slam dancing and its attendant stage diving. One girl, after doing her first exploratory stage dive, ran back to the embrace of her mother.
I think I caught the word `revolutsia` once but any sense of taking on state control was lost in the indiscernible lyrics. While the motley crew who came to see the band were no conformists, they had not come for that. The word had clearly got out that P.T.V.P could create a backdrop for a bit of organised mayhem. So what!? Naff off!
The reading of Russian comics began for me with Prikloocheniya Scooby Doo (Adventures ofScooby Doo) Russian language versions of which have been on sale in selected kiosks for many years, being both produced and written here in Russia.
As a fun entry into the Russian language these seemed just the job. They were not quite War and Peace level yet not too basic either, and. having grown up with the hound and his ghost busting pals I could enjoy them on the level of a second childhood..
Soon, however, the repetitiveness of their plots –(`Oo menya bi vsye poloochilos yesli bi nye eti protivnye dyetki! `) began to grate on me, as did the strange stares I came to be getting from people as I poured through them in the cafes. It was time to move on to graphic novels.
Bubble comics.
Bubble comics, since having been founded by the media scribe Artyem Gabrelyanov, has printed rivals to Manga and Marvel comics for the past seven years from an office in the Beloruskaya area of Moscow.
They offer around six non-franchised titles which are brought out monthly in twenty page chapters and then collected into books.
Some Bubble comics titles include: Besoboi (demon fighting hocus pocus), Major Grom (St Petersburg detective yarn), Meteora (intergalactic adventure) and Enoch (time travel carryings on). There is even an English language version of their Exilibrium fantasy.
To me, finding Krasnaya Furiya, however, was like coming across an old and long lost friend at a party of strangers.
Krasnaya Furiya.
Started in 2012 Krasnaya Furiya (Red Fury) concerns the exploits of a Russian female action heroine, without any special powers (Older readers might be reminded of a more real world version of the British Tank Girl character from the late Eighties).
The story arc commences with `B Poiska Graalya` (The Search for the Grail`).
In this we meet Nika Chaikina, an athletic, glamorous redheaded master thief. With the aid of Johnny (a mysterious guide who speaks to her via a microphone in her ear) she has broken into a prestigious museum in Mainland China. Her intention is to make off with some precious artefacts but a mysterious intruder sets off the alarm and soon guards pursue her….
After being captured by angry Chinese officials, Nika meets the intruder again and it appears that he is a man of influence. Indeed, he demands her release. She is needed elsewhere, he explains.
MAKS.
This man is a team leader from MAKS (Meshdurodnovo Agentsva Kontrolnaya – International Agents of Control): a secret elite corps that acts with the purpose of preventing world wars from breaking out. Miss Chaikina then finds herself enlisted on a mission to prevent the Holy Grail, a series of historical artefacts (the most important one being Hitler’s diaries) from getting into the hands of a neo-Nazi cell.
There have been seven stories in the Krasnaya Furiya series. I have not read them all yet but so far my favourite has to be `Nichevo Lichnovo, Prosto Biznes` (Nothing Personal, Only business). This forms the third story and Book five in the series and is a standalone story told in four chapters. The author is Atryom Gabrelyanov the founder of Bubble and the artists are Edward Petrovich and Nina Vakooeva.
In this crepuscular and cynical story Agent Delta and Nikita are re-united as she infiltrates a dubious arms dealer in Amsterdam that attempts to remote launch a missile to the West from Taepodong, the Repubic of North Korea. They foil the diabolical plan, but are they really the victors?
Spy-Fi.
The sub-genre that Krasanaya Furiya emobodies constitutes that blend of espionage adventure and techno-thriller pioneered by Ian Fleming: or Spy-Fi. For myself who grew up with the likes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E on the TV, and whose guilty pleasure reading consists of Colin Forbes novels, this is well within my comfort zone!
Furthermore, the series treats this genre with respect, rather than undermining it with a tongue-in-cheek approach in the manner of the British screen Franchise Kingsman.
Realism and idealism.
The characters are hired thugs who often seem surly and sarcastic. However, when it matters, the credo `One for all, and all for one` rules their actions. A stroke of realism adds to the interest too: Nika is vulnerable enough to shed tears on occasion and Joshua her love interest gets killed as the first book closes.
Most of all, in this time of worsening relations between East and West, the central premise of international co-operation to prevent a world war is a thread of gold running through it.
Bubble Comics products can be found at a shop called `Chook & Geek`which is on Bolshoye Paveleski Ulitsa.
