(Horton, Andrew and Brashinsky, Michael 163-164) The main character Shlikov (Pyotr Zaychenko) demonstrates a Type A personality which is characterized by being aggressive, overly ambitious, high need for control (of people and situations) and a general sense of feeling uptight and tense. This film provides a very pessimistic outlook on life through the use of claustrophobic camera shots of small, dirty and crowded apartments, fighting and violence, animalistic behaviour (such as rape). These types of films never would have been produced in other eras of strict censorship such as those that preceded Gorbachev’s rule.
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Pavel Lungin’s Taxi Blues is often described as a “Chernukha” film, which is a colloquial word for “blackness” (Vorobiyova-Ray, Kira, 2). Taxi Blues presents a Shlikov, a neurotic character with a Type A personality who ineffectively deals with his life’s plight and struggles while Brother presents Danila, a more relaxed man with a Type B personality that provides him with more efficient problem solving skills and resilience. However, both films differ in how the main character deals with these problems and each character’s personality is the main factor that leads to their different outcome. Taxi Blues and Brother both present the harsh side of life such as criminal networks, violence, psychological torment and stress.
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Pavel Lungin’s Taxi Blues (1990) and Alexei Balabanov’s Brother (1997) are great examples of such films that expose the reality of life in Russia. 1) The chaos and plight of Russian citizens was reflected in cinema throughout these years and was even encouraged due to Gorbachev’s political relaxation and lack of censorship. Russia’s economy continued to fall during the 1990s, losing about 43% of its real gross domestic product between 19 (Doder, Dusko. Yeltsin also continued to embrace the free-market principles and the rising costs of living and the increase in poverty continued as he increased interest rates and decreased welfare spending. He also privatized public safety which gave rise to Russian mafias who took control of industries and began extorting the public in exchange for providing safety. To make matters worse, Gorbachev’s successor Boris Yeltsin came into power, he dismantled the USSR and all of its members (such as Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan) gained their own independence, thus reducing Russia’s global power. Furthermore, Gorbachev’s limitations of vodka production, in an attempt to keep the society sober, further negatively impacted the economy, since the USSR was heavily dependent on the revenues from Vodka (Brown, Archie. Many new criminal organizations arose, and began selling their items on the black-market, and there was an ever-increasing economic gap between the rich and the poor as a result. However, despite Gorbachev’s good intentions, he ultimately failed.
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For example, farmers were given the permission to sell their products on the free market and he allowed (to a limited extent) other small, private businesses to be created. In terms of economics, he attempted to transform the country from socialism into a quasi-capitalist state. Gorbachev’s reforms included freedom of press and decreased censorship, he released dissidents from prison and implemented a greater tolerance for religion, as well as many other positive benefits. During the time of his rule, citizens obtained much greater freedom than they had under the leadership of previous leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenk.
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Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in 1985 as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. The Soviet Union experienced a great time of destabilization between the late 1980s and early 1990s despite attempts to pull it out of its socio-economic crisis.