Russia's Underground Film Industry

For 60 years, Russian film was dominated by the state-approved imagery of Socialist Realism: stark scenes of the proletariat; working, farming and soldiering. Making movies outside this milieu meant risking life and limb at the hands of the KGB. When the Soviet Union collapsed, and that threat diminished, Russian filmmakers released six decades of pent-up creative energy. The films that emerged were an insane mish mash of booze, violence, surrealism, and insanity. Thus Parallel Cinema was born. To learn more about this bizarre and wonderful school of film-making, Vice’s Shane Smith travels to Moscow to interview the motley cast of characters that founded Russian Parallel Cinema. We meet Gleb and Igor Aleinikov, two of Parallel Cinema’s most prolific creators; Oleg Kulik, who spent a year as a dog; Andre Silvestrov and Pavel Liabazov, founders of Alcho-Cinema; and notorious “Necro-Realist” Yevgeni Yufit. Learn about this truly unique filmic tradition that, given Russian’s present volatility, may not exist for much longer.