Generation P (Victor Ginzburg, 2011): Russia

Reviewed by Bethany Burns. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Metro 4 Theater.

This modern film touches on everything from psychedelic drugs, to the Russian Mafia. It is a fast paced film matching the fanatic behavior of it’s characters.   I can always appreciate the use of psychedelics in film, and the intensity portrayed during the main character’s multiple mushroom trips truly puts the audience inside the mind of a man who is “tripping”

In his attempt to find more meaning from life main character Babylen Tatarsky (Vladimir Yepifantsev)  leaves his job in a kiosk, to join an advertising firm.  After a few successful slogans, and the constant stress he feels from his boss Leonid Azadovsky (Mikhail Efremov) pushing him to be more creative Babylen begins to question the value of what he is doing.

Babylen then turns to a sage like friend Gireev (Sergey Shnurov) for some psychedelic assistance. After drinking “magic mushroom tea”, Babylen finds the new ideas for ads hidden in all kinds of places he never would have thought to look, while simultaneously frightening Grieev out of ever wanting to take mushrooms with him again.

As Babylen begins to make strides upwards in his office, he continues to ingest psychedelic medicines such as LSD and more mushrooms, and is able t keep up with the fast pace of his work environment.  He also learns of a secret society in which he is next in line to lead.

Or is this all just a part of the mushroom trip?

From this point on the movie gets very confusing, abrasive, and abstract.  The narrative you have been following loses itself in loud chaotic background music and lack of storyline once Babylen has started using psychedelics. It becomes unclear if the reality being presented to you is truly what is happening to the character or a reality he has created for himself in order to escape the pointlessness of the one he has found himself in.

The cinematography in this film was good, but nothing spectacular.  Winter time in Russia is a very dreary, grey and white time.  You can feel how cold it must have been just watching the actors shiver.  The editing kept with the fast pace of the screenplay, and each actor did a great job owning their characters.

This was my first shot at a Russian film and I must say I had a very hard time following it. The narrative structure of the film was very abstract, and just when I thought the film was going to end, there was another 30 minutes to go revealing some very dreary realities for the main character Babylen Tatarsky (Vladimir Yepifantsev).

When this film was over I as left confused, and a little frightened. What I took from it was a warning perhaps to think twice before viewing another Russian film.