Film and identity in Kazakhstan: Soviet and post-Soviet culture in Central Asia

from defending communism to defending the Motherland, thus returning to the model of patriotism in Tsarist times. This tendency has only intensified in the Putin era; in more recent films only White officers and generals are seen as honourable, brave and self-sacrificing for the nation, while Bolshevik characters are demonized. Julian Graffy sees analogous developments in the treatment of travellers between East and West, with Americans like Lev Kuleshov’s Mr West (in 1924) depicted as naïve but goodhearted, but during the Stalin years and the Cold War becoming clear enemies seeking to undermine the USSR. The post-Soviet years show a similar xenophobic trajectory: America or Paris are sites of freedom, material abundance and cultural richness for Russians, but rather quickly, as in Karen Shakhnazarov’s American Daughter (1995) and Aleksei Balabanov’s Brother 2 (2000), the West’s materialism, lack of spiritual values, violence and sexual exploitation of women emerge strongly. Natalija Majsova finds a dramatic shift in science fiction films as well. After World War II, the narratives emphasized the scientific aspects of space travel and Soviet achievements (in the near future), whereas in the post-Soviet period they have emulated Western science fiction in their representation of dystopian societies and an emphasis on the effect of technology on human beings, as well as in tilting the genre towards pure adventure fantasy. Mark Lipovetsky traces the history of popular trickster characters, who go from being rogues that inadvertently serve Soviet interests, or sidekicks of positive heroes in Socialist Realist films, to becoming chilling in their amorality (like Vadim Abdrashitov and Aleksandr Mindadze’s Plumbum) or, alternately, unrelentingly transgressive counter-culture heroes, attractive in spite of their dubious morals (like Pavel Lungin’s jazz saxophonist Lesha as portrayed by punk rock star Petr Mamonov). Lipovetsky’s conclusion about how the trickster ‘signifies the persistence of deep cultural and social conflicts that unite the post-Soviet period with the late-Soviet era’ (123) could serve as a coda to this excellent collection of interrelated studies.