LENIN’S GUARD; Generations: Russian Cinema of Change
Soviet Union 1965 Dir Marlen Khutsiev 189 min
Three young friends meet again in post-war Moscow and discover a new society characterised by openness, liberalisation and optimism.
Meandering through everyday life of the Moscow new intelligentsia, Lenin’s Guard conjures a rarely seen vision of Soviet youth, as liberated children of WWII.
The film is notable for incorporating New Wave elements: non-actors and non-staged scenes, including documentary footage of a poetry evening by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and other prominent Soviet poets living in Moscow at that time, as well as a party scene with a young Andrey Tarkovsky.
The Thaw was unprecedented time when many great writers emerged and the poets were like modern-day pop stars, holding their poetry readings in packed stadiums. Led by Nikita Khrushchev, the era was characterised by new enthusiasm about Socialist society and its achievements.
30 September 2018, 15:00
Barbican Cinema 2
