This is likely a better version of the picture in the previous post. It captures the atmosphere of the setting more adequately. Who is this? World, meet Suleiman — Suleiman, well you’ve already met the world. Dominque a.k.a. Suleiman, 41 from Angola, was kind enough to give me a 20 minute interview which I hope [...]

Is a bum just a bum, regardless of skin color? In Russia no. Homeless blacks are few and far between with problems unique to their group. Getting to the bottom how and why they came to live on the street requires a special dictionary of tact translating fractured mixed-language euphemisms, delicate dreams and confused emotions [...]

This image, that I like for Genna’s profile, comes from the scene where Genna first meets Tolya. Here the fighters feel each other out in the first round of their bout. As Tolya is significantly older we have a battle of young vs old, or experience vs naivety as well as black vs white, or [...]

What can I say, the choice of placing Genna with an artist as adopted parent immediately condemned my appreciation of the film as cliche. Why does Fedya have to be an artist? He could  be anything, truck driver, banker, anyone. By the law of averages he should be some type of engineer, but no. He [...]

I am going to begin looking at popular perceptions and ideas about Africa contained in Soviet-era and modern Russian films.  I will post TV screen photographs and my commentary on what I find important, or what it seems the filmmaker thought was important. This is image is from Gagarin’s Grandson. In addition I plan post [...]