Cinemasaurus: Russian Film in Contemporary Context

Cinemasaurus examines contemporary Russian cinema as a new visual economy, emerging over three decades after the Soviet collapse. Focusing on debates and films exhibited at Russian and US public festivals where the films have premiered, the volume's contributors-the new generation of US scholars studying Russian cinema-examine four issues of Russia's transition: (1) its imperial legacy, (2) the emergence of a film market and its new genres, (3) Russia's uneven integration into European values and hierarchies, (4) the renegotiation of state power vis-à-vis arthouse and independent cinemas. An introductory essay frames each of the four sections, with 90 films total under discussion, concluding with a historical timeline and five interviews of key film-industry figures formative of the historical context.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; List of Illustrations --; Foreword --; Acknowledgments --; Note on Transliteration and Translations --; Cinemasaurus: Introduction --; Introduction --; 1. Imperial Fatigue: Somnambulants, Ghosts, and Monsters --; 2. Empire Reloaded: Sacred Power in a Postmodern Era --; 3. Russia's Quiet Other: Dmitrii Mamuliia's Another Sky and Aleksandr Kott's The Test --; Introduction --; 4. Laughing Apocalypse: Horror and/as Comedy --; 5. Eccentricity, Theatricality, and the Grotesque --; 6. Privatized Violence in the New Russian Cinema --; Introduction --; 7. Fragments of Empire: The Heartland in Post-Soviet Film --; 8. Russia on the Margins? --; 9. Contending Alterities: Drag Show, Roma Camp . . . --; Introduction --; 10. Past, Present, and Posthumous Fathers: Cinepaternity Reloaded --; 11. New Auteurism: The Case of Mikhalkov and Bekmambetov --; 12. Elki: The Most Profitable Franchise of the Putin Era --; 13. The Mediascape: Alexander Rodnyansky (CEO, AR Films, Non-Stop Production) --; 14. The Festival: Sitora Alieva (Program Director, Kinotavr) --; 15. The Exhibition Space: Paul Heth (CEO, Rising Star Media; Karo Film Holding) --; 16. The Film Journal: Birgit Beumers (KinoKultura, UK) --; 17. The Film Symposium: Vladimir Padunov (Russian Film Symposium, US) --; Kino-Grafik --; Notes on the Contributors --; Works Cited --; Index