Génération P

Viktor Ginzburg's "Generation P" is a satire on advertising, and the free-for-all that took over Russia after the Soviet collapse. My favorite scene is where the main character imagines Che Guevara showing him how mass consumerism destroys the soul and turns one into a robot watching TV all day (like the characters in Mike Judge's "Idiocracy").

A lot of the movie is filmed so that the audience isn't sure if the action is real or imagined (those mushrooms suggest the latter). And then there's the title. The P could stand for pop, Pepsi, Panasonic, or something else of that ilk. Empty prospects for the generation that saw Boris Yeltsin shell the parliament building that he had previously defended, and then use the constitutional crisis to establish a nearly monarchical government.

I recommend the movie. The main character's immersion in one of the sleaziest worlds of all makes for an intense story. Really good one.

If you have read the book, then you will like that movie did not tried to "improve" or "rethink" the original story, but stayed quite close to original, sometimes quoting parts of the book's text entirely.

Cast is fine. Don't let the sucky trailer full you, actors are playing fine and their characters are quite believable (except for maybe, Litvinova, but she has around 30 seconds on screen, so it does not matter).

Visuals are good. Not great, but good. Its "slightly better 90s", with slightly more human bandits, and slightly cleaner streets.

Sound is fine, and music is even good enough to wonder about buying a soundtrack.

.. but. There is always "but", and in this case - you MUST have lived in ex-USSR 90s, and you must speak Russian, to understand the movie. It's very tightly rooted into post-soviet discourse, and without "cultural references" (c), i am afraid, the movie will be hard to grasp on.

alternatively, if you have ever wondered about, or experienced altered states of consciousness, you might find it fun ;)

One of the best post-modern russian movies, there are not much though. Soundtrack is great, characters are too.

A good set of actors. It's also good that director didn't modify the original Pelevin's idea.

This movie enchants with its honesty and surprises with its ingenuity. It shows an art-house-like alternative reality, which is an illusion. Unlike art house the movie has a clear message and meaning, you just have to look deeper. The alternative reality is also not really alternative, most of it is Russian reality now. Essentially, if you are a fan of seeing things through the glasses of irony and satire, you are not afraid to wonder what is really going on in the world behind the mask of show and propaganda, the movie is for you. I can't say it's about Russia only; it is a certain view of the world illustrated by the example of Russia. What country doesn't know lost generations, brain-washing and power play? Do not expect to be satisfied. The story leaves much room for thought and conclusions. Pelevin fans would be thrilled, those who didn't read the book will enjoy the movie nonetheless. It would be wrong to compare it to the book, because this is the kind of book that is next to impossible to be screened, yet the director managed to do it with flying colors. Besides, I can hardly think of any Russian movie with so much cursing, which makes the presented reality even more real. Whatever your impressions of the movie, it is definitely worth your time.