Стиляги (2008)

I just watched this movie (called "Стиляги" or Stilyagi - Hipsters.) It is about a group of young people in the 1940s - 1950s Soviet Union who were called the Stilyagi which in Russian means "obsessed with fashion." To better understand this movie you have to take into account Russian/Soviet mentality at the time. World War 2 had just ended and the Communists were reasserting the power they had loosened during the war. On top of that were millions of soldiers who were returning from the rest of Europe back to the USSR and had experienced American culture (swing music, flashy clothes, etc.) This sub-culture was largely underground until Stalin died in 1953 and then came out in the open during the Khrushchevv Thaw (Хрущёвская оттепель.) Despite Stalin's death the Stilyagi experienced violence and commendation from the Soviet authorities as well as the Soviet people who considered them to be anti-Soviet and influenced by foreign elements. Their catch phrase was "Today he dances jazz, but tomorrow [he] will sell [his] homeland" (Сегодня он танцует джаз, а завтра Родину продаст.) They believed in being an individual in a society that only praised the collective. Besides their colorful clothes (I should mention that in Russia today most people wear black or gray and those that wear any color stand out and are noticed - it happened to me and several other foreigners many times) they also used old X-ray films to copy illegal foreign records. The sub culture was finally recognized by the Soviet Government in 1957 after an International Festival was held in the Soviet Union, but by that time most of the origianl Stilyagi were in labor camps, forced in the military or had left the sub culture.

The movie is pretty good despite the fact that it is a musical - which didn't add to the story at all. It is the basic Romeo and Juliet with a twist (they don't die at the end.) The main character  Mels (Мэлс) played by Anton Shagin (Антон Шагин) is in the Communist Youth League - the Komsomol - and he meets Polly (Полина) played by Oksana Akinshina (Оксана Акиньшина) when they raid their dance and cut the ties and hair of the Stilyagi there. I should mention that Mels was a popular Soviet name at the time and stood for: Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.  Mels eventually joins the Stilyagi with the help of Fred (Фрэд) played by Maksim Matveev (Максим Матвеев) whose father is a Soviet diplomat and Mels and Polly fall in love. Mels is thrown out of the Komsomols for being anti-Soviet. The movie then takes an odd twist with Polly giving birth to a black baby (apparently she was with a black tourist from America  - which would have been weird in 1950s both because the man was black and American.) Mels accepts the baby as his own and they live together. Fred, who was given the chance to go to the US if he gave up the Stilyagi and married an American, returns to Moscow and tells Mels that their group of Stilyagi have all gone away for one reason or another and that even in America no one dresses or talks like them anymore. The film ends in modern day Moscow and some singing. Like I said the movie has some odd parts, but on the whole gives a good description of what Soviet society was like in the 1950s (ie forced communal living, the collective over the individual, Soviet Communist values over American culture and the illegal trade of anything "anti-Soviet." The Stilyagi paved the way for the millions upon millions of secret Soviet Beatles fans in the 1960s.