Visions du Réel 2020 - We Are Russia
Visions du Réel
We Are Russia is not a typical piece of non-fiction storytelling. In fact, it is not exactly clear whether Alexandra Dalsbaek, a Franco-Russian filmmaker resident in Moscow, even intended for her film to be easily categorised as a documentary. This is by no means an admonition; it is rather an observation stemming from the fact that Dalsbaek’s filmmaking sensibilities are geared somewhat differently to many other documentary filmmakers. She is more a journalist than a storyteller.
Consequently, it is difficult to discern whether We Are Russia is a story at all, not in a traditional sense. Instead, it is an account of Dalsbaek’s time shadowing a group of very young political campaigners working with Alexei Navalny, one of the most outspoken opponents of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. She wastes no time giving any background to the situation and perhaps expects the viewer either to have paid attention to the news and to be at least vaguely aware of the political situation in Russia, or alternatively, to hold on to her shoulder and catch up on the detail in media res.
As the film progresses and takes the viewer through acts of civil disobedience, protests, fisticuffs with the police and court proceedings, it becomes clear that Dalsbaek’s role in this project is best defined as that of a war correspondent. Although she never makes an appearance in front of the camera, her presence is felt throughout. Her camera isn’t detached or dehumanised in any capacity; it is there on the ground: pushed around by other people, hidden away from the view of police officers at times, or shaking and rocking when Dalsbaek (who holds it) has to flee together with her subjects. This gives the film an atmosphere of tactile, visceral realism found in war-zone newsreels. The only difference is that Dalsbaek isn’t covering a military conflict.
What this movie is about – and it is made extremely clear – is a conflict of ideologies. It is a war between an extremely conservative establishment bent on suppressing freedom whilst consolidating its power and youthful radical thinking, pining for change. However, what makes this conflict especially interesting is its setting. Russia isn’t the US, Germany, France or Great Britain. It is not what one would call a mature democracy with longstanding traditions of respecting freedoms and rights of its denizens. It has always been an empire ruled by autocrats, which is exactly why Dalsbaek’s movie is inherently fascinating to watch. If the young activists she filmed over the course of a doomed presidential campaign lived in America, they’d be perfectly able to take their slogans and their megaphones all the way to the White House and no one would bat an eye. They could rouse crowds, express their disapproval and then go home.
Things are much different in Russia and Dalsbaek’s camera captures this quite well. For example, when Milena, one of the main characters in the film, stands with a small poster and a balloon right outside the main entrance to the Lubyanka Building – the infamous FSB headquarters – she is perfectly aware her timid-looking act of nonviolent disobedience could bear severe consequences. She could get arrested by undercover police officers who show up within minutes and ask for her papers and there’s nothing she would be able to do about it. In fact, some of her colleagues are handed prison sentences for participating in protests or other acts of disobedience which Putin’s administration views as nothing short of militant subterfuge.
Therefore, anybody who is aware of the gravity of what Dalsbaek and her subjects are up to will most assuredly find We Are Russia to be a riveting experience. It is a competent and tactile piece of political activism intended to give the audience a taste of what it is really like to live in a country chipping away at fundamental freedoms and rights of her citizens with reckless abandon. And the film manages to encapsulate it rather neatly as a mixture of Orwellian and Kafka-esque dystopia — imposed upon real people.
Naturally, it is a futile endeavour to seek objective impartiality in a film of this sort, just as it is impossible to find it in a news report from the frontlines. After all, the camera is firmly fixed at one of the two sides of the conflict and – given the circumstances – it would be unreasonable to expect the filmmaker to have ready access to the other side. In any case, We Are Russia is a succinct peek at the dire political situation in contemporary Russia where ideological tribalism – something a Western viewer is also somewhat familiar with – has been taken to extremes. It is a raw, suspenseful and immediate piece of political journalism and a record of gallantry on a political battlefield on behalf of youthful romantics whose desire to live in a country free of oppression is seemingly tantamount to treason.
