A SCREENING OF EMPIRE V IN KAZAKHSTAN DEMONSTRATED THAT THE CONTROVERSIAL MOVIE LACKS THE IMPACT OF GINZBURG’S PREVIOUS ATTEMPT TO ADAPT A PELEVIN CLASSIC.
I caught my first sight of the marketing for Ampire V – EMPIRE V – at the beginning of last year in a cinema in Moscow in the form of a poster. The promised screening soon vanished and, a few months later, so did I.
Later I would discover the supposed rationale for the cancellation. There had been a dispute over the certification. EMPIRE V was submitted to the Ministry of Culture with an age rating of 16+. The men from the Ministry felt it should be higher.
To date this film has not been shown in any mainstream cinema in Russia, suffering the same fate as the lamented picture WE. The key presence in the film of one Miron Federov – AKA OXXYMIRON , the rapper who has protested the invasion of the Ukraine and has staged benefit concert on behalf of those affected – seems to give the lie to the official version of events.
foreign agent: wooooh! He bites! [Youtube]Neutral Kazakhstan, though, deemed this film fit to be projected onto the screens in Kazakh cinemas this September.
There seems an appropriate symbolism to the fact that the late screening in Kazakhstan came at around the same time as Russia released Svidetel (The Witness) which represents one of the first cinematic attempts to advocate for the Russian government’s side in the war.
Master’s return.
EMPIRE V constitutes a 114-minute-long (now) 18+ certificate urban fantasy which, as the Russian title hints at (if you reshuffle it), draws on the vampire trope. The film functions as a rendering of the eighth novel by the post-modernist Muscovite novelist Victor Pelevin.
Victor Ginzburg, 64, who could be called a `Russian David Lynch` directs. This Russian born American citizen already has form with the tortuous task of transforming Pelevin’s fevered mythologizing into something screen worthy. Ginzburg was behind the film Generation P the paranoiac Nineties based romp from eleven years back (which made enough of an impression on one dolt for him to name his blog after it).
Pavel Tabakov, a Moscow born 28-year-old (with just a hint of the young Malcolm McDowell about him) plays the lead role of the down-at-heal Everyman Ramon and Federov plays his mentor who ushers him into the ways of the vampire and a relative newcomer Taya Radenchko, 24, is Ramon’s fellow inductee who allures him so.
Other players include Vladimir Epifantsev, best known for his Rambo-like portrayal of an outlaw in the television series Flint (as well as for holding views critical of the Putin leadership) while the establishment insider Fyodor Bondarchuk puts in an odd, but not untypical, cameo also.
Fractals.
The texture of it all is a rich psychedelic odyssey. Many computer-generated visions of neural activity flash up before the viewer, as do fractal patterns. Meanwhile, the earthbound part of the events is staged in a series of opulent olde worlde interiors. It is all a bit Stephanie Meyers-meets- Thomas Pynchon and much of it would seem ridiculous were it not delivered with such deadpan earnestness.
Plucked from obscurity.
Roman (Tabakov), a one-time student of journalism, is living the life of dead-end cash in hand jobs before he sets his eyes on a promotional alert painted on the pavement promising special work.
Turning up to the address, he soon finds himself being spoken to by a masked menace (Epifantsev) and being informed that he is to be elevated into the realm of the creatures who really run the show. The man before him is about to die and must needs pass on his legacy. What ensues consists of the instruction of Ramon – now to be renamed Rama – into the dense protocols of the life of the vampires and how they hold sway over us muggles, who are but a dairy species.
Myths busted.
In the process, vampire mythology is lobbed sky high. For example, what small fangs they have play second place to a parasite in their mouths which they call `the tongue`. This can extract a small droplet of `red liquid` from the victim without them noticing and thus give the vampire access to their memories and knowledge.
They also imbibe the distilled essences of historical figures from Alexander Pushkin to Steve McQueen, the better to augment their capabilities.
Love is viewed as a form of combat and ownership of human society is achieved via a promotion of Glamour (consumerism) and Discourse (Empty chatter masquerading as discussion). They even fund vampire movies in order to install a false image of what they really are.
They do, however, transform into bats and this gives rise to the most memorable episodes in the film as Rama streaks over Moscow in scenes that could be a homage to Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita.
However, throughout his initiation Rama struggles with his existing sense of humanity and loyalty to it. Also, he becomes entranced by an insouciant, Hermione Grainger like graduate vampire (Radenchko).
Unbitten.
That is the framework to EMPIRE V but it is all served up with Pelevin’s trademark idiosyncrasies: modern Moscow merged with ancient Babylon, narcotic trips, philosophical chit-chat, mirthless grotesqueness and a strutting amoral elite and an atmosphere of disassociation.
Here is my problem: the entire vampire trope in itself has never been one which worked for me. For one thing I have never found vampires to be credible life-forms and hence not frightening and the sexual symbolism with which they are associated strikes me as tiresome. As much as EMPIRE V is iconoclastic about vampires, including the sexual angle, and as much as one could call this `a vampire film for people who don’t like vampire films`, the shtick still seems dated and facetious (Pelevin’s novel is 1`7 years old, after all).
Ginzburg does at least steer clear of the antisemitism which can be tallied with this kind of allegory (not having read the source material I cannot say the same of Pelevin).
Russia’s loss.
The refusal to screen this film by the Russian authorities has resulted in the inevitable `Streisand effect`. The Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal premiered the film in the West at the end of last July, making it the most talked about Russian film right now.
Too many of the resulting reviews regurgitate the assumption that this film has been banished from the big screen in its homeland because it is a clear satire of the oligarchic elite.
In fact, there have been Russian films before which have tilted at the same moneyed strata and made it to the cinemas. Rather it is the name of Federov, a `foreign agent` with anti-war views that has led to this stringent push back. (Indeed, there exist not a few oligarchs who would pull Russia out of the conflict, given half the chance).
EMPIRE V recalls Bekmambetov’s Night Watch and Day Watch (2004 and 2007) more than it does Generation P. By comparison it seems like a paler descendant of that classic.
Lead image: Se7enews.