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Politics is the new sexy
Anna Sulimina - Moscow News - themoscownews.com - 2.13.12 - JRL 2012-27

Putin parties and Medvedev's girls are so last year. This Valentine's Day, as election protests sweep the country, street protests are the new sexy. That's the idea behind a new film, as yet untitled, featuring a love story across the barricades ­ between an OMON riot cop and a female opposition protester. "Today people are not at war because of ideological reasons, but many find themselves on the opposite sides of society ­ riot policemen often hear chants 'Musora pozor Rossii' (Policemen are Russia's shame), so they can't stay unbiased," the film's director, Nikolai Kovbas, told The Moscow News.

"Our Romeo is a riot policeman ­ it's his job to drag protest- ers to the paddy wagon, regardless of his own political views. Our Juliet is a protester, and her brother is an opposition leader," Kovbas
said, explaining the movie's plot.

The idea of the film came to its producer, Nikita Trynkin, on the first protest rally on December 5 at Chistiye Prudy. Trynkin is managing director of Timur Bekmambetov's Bazelevs film studio, which made the hit films "Night Watch" and "Day Watch."

Stories of people ­ on either side of the protests ­ falling in love with each other are not rare today, the film's creators say.

Many of the film's scenes were actually shot on real protests. On the latest rally on February 4, the actor playing the lead heroine's brother was filmed on stage among the real speakers.

Kovbas says that the plot is not so far fetched, as popular nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who used to be a riot policeman, is now an opposition activist.

"Everything is possible," said Kovbas. "We're still working out the end of the film ­ I think the whole country is holding its breath to see the finale," referring to the unclear outcome of the opposition protests.

'Putin's Kiss'

The theme of political romance and changing allegiances proved highly successful for another Russian film, which won an award at this year's Sundance Film Festival in the United States. This rapid change of heart on the part of Russian female voters is perfectly shown in a new documentary called "Putin's Kiss," filmed by Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen.

The film features the real-life story of Masha Drokova, an activist of pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, who once kissed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at one of the group's meetings.

But Drokova, who was at first infatuated with Nashi's ideas and with its leader Vasily Yakemenko, then falls for well-known opposition journalist Oleg Kashin, who was severely beaten in November 2010 for his political articles in an attack that some blamed on Nashi supporters.

"Masha brought me close to the new Russia in a way I had never experienced," Pedersen wrote on the movie's website.

"I was placed in the center of the political conflict that is stirring Russia these days. It is a conflict between different views of how to implement democracy in a country with a long history of dictatorship," Pedersen wrote.

Holding hands

Currently, Russian political life seems to be full of romantic stories, with the tabloids full of the wedding last month of Anatoly Chubais, head of the Rusnano state corporation and a friend of Putin's, to opposition writer Dunya Smirnova.

For those people single and looking for love on Valentine's Day, the main Moscow protest venues ­ Triumfalnaya and Bolotnaya squares, Prospect Sakharova and Ulitsa Yakimanka have recently become hot dating sites ­ freezing temperatures notwithstanding.

Russia's most popular social networks, Facebook and Vkontakte, recently presented a typical portrait of an opposition protester. Some 80 per cent of the protesters on Bolotnaya and Sakharova were male, and most of them were not married, a survey found.

What's more, a vox pop carried out by pollster Levada Center on Prospect Sakharova on Dec. 24 indicated that most of the male protesters were between 25 and 39 years old, with a higher education and higher than average income.

Would-be opposition Valentine's may have to wait a little while to meet their other half, however, as the next rally isn't scheduled until Sunday Feb. 26. But at least it's designed with romance in mind ­ the protesters will hold hands all around the Garden Ring, so who knows who you'll be standing next to.

Keywords: Life in Russia, Culture - Russia News - Russia

 

Putin parties and Medvedev's girls are so last year. This Valentine's Day, as election protests sweep the country, street protests are the new sexy. That's the idea behind a new film, as yet untitled, featuring a love story across the barricades ­ between an OMON riot cop and a female opposition protester.

"Today people are not at war because of ideological reasons, but many find themselves on the opposite sides of society ­ riot policemen often hear chants 'Musora pozor Rossii' (Policemen are Russia's shame), so they can't stay unbiased," the film's director, Nikolai Kovbas, told The Moscow News.

"Our Romeo is a riot policeman ­ it's his job to drag protest- ers to the paddy wagon, regardless of his own political views. Our Juliet is a protester, and her brother is an opposition leader," Kovbas
said, explaining the movie's plot.

The idea of the film came to its producer, Nikita Trynkin, on the first protest rally on December 5 at Chistiye Prudy. Trynkin is managing director of Timur Bekmambetov's Bazelevs film studio, which made the hit films "Night Watch" and "Day Watch."

Stories of people ­ on either side of the protests ­ falling in love with each other are not rare today, the film's creators say.

Many of the film's scenes were actually shot on real protests. On the latest rally on February 4, the actor playing the lead heroine's brother was filmed on stage among the real speakers.

Kovbas says that the plot is not so far fetched, as popular nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who used to be a riot policeman, is now an opposition activist.

"Everything is possible," said Kovbas. "We're still working out the end of the film ­ I think the whole country is holding its breath to see the finale," referring to the unclear outcome of the opposition protests.

'Putin's Kiss'

The theme of political romance and changing allegiances proved highly successful for another Russian film, which won an award at this year's Sundance Film Festival in the United States. This rapid change of heart on the part of Russian female voters is perfectly shown in a new documentary called "Putin's Kiss," filmed by Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen.

The film features the real-life story of Masha Drokova, an activist of pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, who once kissed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at one of the group's meetings.

But Drokova, who was at first infatuated with Nashi's ideas and with its leader Vasily Yakemenko, then falls for well-known opposition journalist Oleg Kashin, who was severely beaten in November 2010 for his political articles in an attack that some blamed on Nashi supporters.

"Masha brought me close to the new Russia in a way I had never experienced," Pedersen wrote on the movie's website.

"I was placed in the center of the political conflict that is stirring Russia these days. It is a conflict between different views of how to implement democracy in a country with a long history of dictatorship," Pedersen wrote.

Holding hands

Currently, Russian political life seems to be full of romantic stories, with the tabloids full of the wedding last month of Anatoly Chubais, head of the Rusnano state corporation and a friend of Putin's, to opposition writer Dunya Smirnova.

For those people single and looking for love on Valentine's Day, the main Moscow protest venues ­ Triumfalnaya and Bolotnaya squares, Prospect Sakharova and Ulitsa Yakimanka have recently become hot dating sites ­ freezing temperatures notwithstanding.

Russia's most popular social networks, Facebook and Vkontakte, recently presented a typical portrait of an opposition protester. Some 80 per cent of the protesters on Bolotnaya and Sakharova were male, and most of them were not married, a survey found.

What's more, a vox pop carried out by pollster Levada Center on Prospect Sakharova on Dec. 24 indicated that most of the male protesters were between 25 and 39 years old, with a higher education and higher than average income.

Would-be opposition Valentine's may have to wait a little while to meet their other half, however, as the next rally isn't scheduled until Sunday Feb. 26. But at least it's designed with romance in mind ­ the protesters will hold hands all around the Garden Ring, so who knows who you'll be standing next to.