TO PARTAKE OF EX-SOVIET CINEMA

The New York Times
12.12.1996
Linda Lee

"I would find it hard to imagine a Russian film without drinking," said Galina Verevkina, the coordinator for the Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions in Moscow, which is sponsoring a new series of films from Russia and other former Soviet republics with the Museum of Modern Art. ... "Drinking is a way of life, like brushing your teeth, a way to take the stress off," she said by telephone from Moscow. "It's impossible, especially when showing the daily life of a family, to leave it out." And so the filmmakers behind the nine programs at the Modern have put the drinking into their films. ...

Most people here know little about life as it is lived today in Russia, and even less about that in former republics like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Latvia. Jytte Jensen, assistant curator of the museum's department of film and television, organized the series with the Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions, under its chairman, Rustam Ibragimbekov.

With the ungainly title of "Commonwealth of Independent States: Film Fest," the series begins tonight with Vladimir Khotinenko's Moslem, a Russian film from 1995 that depicts the clash between villagers and a young man (Yevgeny Mironov) returning as a convert to Islam after being captured during the war in Afghanistan. To the consternation of the village, the young man refuses to drink vodka and carries his prayer rug to the fields. The film has been shown in theaters and on television in Russia.

"Most people viewed it as just a work of art and disregarded the political statements," Ms. Verevkina said. "They suffered with the characters. Some Moslems were surprised, because he's exaggerated in his beliefs. But everybody liked it." ...