Generation P: Edward Crabtree's blog.

`KONVERT`: a spectral odyssey through the Moscow of today.

There has been a welcome trickle of cinematic chillers issuing from Russia of late. We had the great Diggeri (Diggers) screening in 2016. Also the 35 year old Svyatoslav Podgaevsky has carved a niche for himself as a horror flick practitioner with Pikova Dama (Queen of Spades) from 2015, and, from last year Nevesta (The Bride) plus Ruslka: Ozero Mortvykh (Mermaid: Lake of the Dead) from this year At more of a pinch there is also the Gogol franchise starting with, Gogol: Nachalno (Gogol: The Beginning) which hit the Russian cinemas last year.

Konvert (The Envelope), another addition to Russia’s late foray into the horror genre, is an understated mini-gem. This was screened from November 30^th 2017 but – and this tells you a lot –had a run of only a week in most cinemas and seemed to get tucked away into late showings to make room for more popular fare like Dude Who Shrunk My Car? 3

The up and coming 37 year old Vladmir Markov held the clapper-board, the yarn was spun by Ilya Kulikov (who wrote the `Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion` TV series) and it introduces a 30 year old newcomer to the screen: the lean and dark Igor Lizengevitch.

At 78 minutes long `Konvert` is a compact tale with a handful of people for the cast and with all the action taking place in central Moscow over 24 hours. There are very few jump scares and almost no gory bits, (hence it being a 16 Certificate film). Indeed, this is a spooky and poetic drama with a European feel about it. Good use is made of sumptuous cruising shots of day and night Moscow from the wheel of a car and from above. The moody ambient score by Sergiei Stern then enhances this.

Igor is a young chauffeur for an architectural bureau. A letter arrives which seems to be sent to the wrong address. The secretary – an alluring young woman – gives him the task of ensuring that it ends up in the right hands. (You get the impression that Igor only agrees to this assignment to get in her favour and expect a love interest to develop, but it typifies the economy of this film that we never see her again).

In his efforts to deliver the mysterious envelope to the right apartment – through shadowy doorways and dusty alleyways –Igor enters the `twilight zone` where urban reality and phantoms commingle. Realising that the envelope is cursed he attempts to off load it onto other people but it keeps on ending up in his hands. Then a policewoman becomes his ally and joins him on his quest as they pursue a spectral girl, the victim of a car crash, and are lead to a cemetery….

Like Nevesta, and many a ghost story, this concerns the laying to rest of old injustices. The comparison between old Russia and the steel and glass modernity of Moscow is brought out well.

Less derivative than Pikova Dama, less melodramatic than Nevesti but not as much fun as Diggeri, Konvert is ideal fare for an icy mid-winter. Like Igor, you will have to do some searching to find it however!

C.S.I Kiev: Is `The Sniffer` a gateway to Russian language mass culture?

The reason why the Ukraine is the maker of the most talked about Russian language T.V show owes to the fact that, whatever else may be happening between those countries, Russia continues to harbour a voracious appetite for Ukrainian television.

That Nyukhach – The Sniffer –is being consumed in 60 countries – including the Balkans and Israel and now France has bought it, and Japan have now rolled out their own copycat version, must signify something.

Nyukhach is a detective series created by Film U.A Television and dreamt up and penned by the Ukrainian Artyom Litvinenko. The two main stars comprise Kirril Karo, an Estonian, plus the Russian Ivan Oganesyan. This show, which has been on air in Russia since December 2013, is now available on You tube, Amazon Prime and Netflix. Western observers are already comparing Nyukhach in favourable terms to the likes of the U.K’s Sherlock and The Mentalist from the U.S.A.

Elite Squad.

The eponymous protagonist, the gaunt 43-year-old Karo, is known to the press as `the dogman` on account of his special power. His enhanced olfactory sensitivities enable him to retrace the history of objects, rooms and people which he smells (an activity imagined on the screen in terms of vaporous CGI after-images). This, coupled with the encyclopaedic knowledge of the origins of scents, has turned him into a misanthropic recluse. The power also provides him with clear advantages in criminal investigations and it just so happens that a schoolboy friend heads a police unit called the Special Bureau of Investigations, which deals with off beat cases. This friend, the Sniffer’s only one, is the all; purpose womanising tough guy. Soon the Sniffer is dragged with reluctance into adventures, such as a case where a former military general, who served in Afghanistan, who spices up his retirement by hiring casual labourers on his estate and then hunting them down in a nearby forest.

Individual episodes feature stand alone tales – and they appear to take place in Russia judging by police insignia and so on –but there is a wider story arc involving love interests, family issues and a medical conspiracy.

Popular television.

This drama cannot not stand alongside the faux realism of the Scandinavian school of noir crime thriller. Nyukhach functions on a more escapist level. There can be a fair bit of dry humour arising between the strained relationship between the hero, who is a gun-shy amateur, and his police buddy who nurtures a kick-ass impatience with the Sniffer’s delicate sensibilities.

The visual design feels septic and futuristic (the Sniffer often retires to his own den which is a hi-tech luxury flat with an ensuite laboratory to analyse scents). Whilst the show does raise some issues in an oblique way – bullying in the army, corruption and class division –this is not the daily reality that most residents of Kiev or Moscow would recognise.

The characterisation in the script and performances is notably ham fisted. The Sniffer himself is the Solitary Brainbox whereas his sidekick embodies the Bondian Action Hero. Then we are treated to the Nagging Ex-Wife, the Difficult Teenager, the Long Suffering Hard-nosed Boss and, courtesy of the Lithuanian actress Agne Gruditye, the Beautiful Female Professional who Demands Respect. It is here that the derivative nature of the programme is laid most bare.

Western Sniffiness.

Outside of Eastern Europe Nyukhach has been received with begrudging acknowledgement. See, for example, Chris Riendeau’s treatment of it in The Tusk (13/07/2017) where he concludes with the conceit that Putin scripted the show! Marvel too at the remark of a satisfied viewer – quoted in U.A Film News: `I have to stop and pinch myself that I’m watching a Ukrainian T.V show` -!

However, this unoriginal Ukrainian success story might just help to wear down the prejudice in the West against Russian language television shows and films. After seeing this some viewers may well give other such products their time.` Freud’s Method`, anyone?

Krasnaya Furiya: Classy Spi-Fi from Bubble Comics.

The reading of Russian comics began for me with Prikloocheniya Scooby Doo (Adventures of Scooby 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.