Fossil fuels are the only things propping up the Russian economy right now, so
don’t expect Putin to help reduce carbon emissions. Keep in mind, he was also a
KGB agent, when the USSR was one of the dirtiest polluters on Earth. As usual, Russia’s
regional ethnic minorities pay the price. Thanks to record high temperatures,
northeast Siberia was plagued with unprecedented forest fires in 2021, but the
national government in Moscow supplied no assistance. It wasn’t an oversight.
That was policy. The hardscrabble residents of Shologon must face the advancing
flames alone in Alexander Abaturov’s documentary, Paradise, which
premieres tomorrow on Klassiki as the “Pick of the Week.”
Unfortunately,
the Taiga region where Shologon is located had been designated one of Russia’s inaptly
named special “control” zones. That means the national government will withhold
support if they believe the potential costs of fighting fires are greater than
the benefits of saving the endangered areas. Somehow, Shologon was fortunate
enough to get Pavel, a forest fire expert temporarily assigned to them, but all
the labor involved comes from the village. (To be fair, Pavel appears willing
to roll up his sleeves and pitch in too.)
Although
Abaturov takes an editorially restrained, highly observational approach, he still
captures some very dramatic footage of the wildfires encroaching on Shologon—mostly
just by leaning out of car windows and filming the villages as the desperately trying
to set backfires and firebreaks. The villagers do so largely unprotected, as
was presumably true for Abaturov as well. The air and skies often look ominously
orange and smoky, which is not the result of filters or any sort of augmentation
(as New Yorkers will remember from when the Canadian forest fires turned our
skyline a sickly shade of amber last year.)
Like
Pavel, Abaturov clearly sympathizes with the citizens of Shologon. The current
regime badly exploits its regional minorities, definitely including the Turkic
and Mongolian people of Siberia. In 2021, Putin’s government turned their backs
on them, during their time of crisis. Today, the hardscrabble provinces are
disproportionately likely to serve as cannon-fodder, because they cannot afford
the estimated five to seven thousand dollar bribes necessary to buy their way
out of conscription.
Some of these graduating Spetsnaz recruits have likely gone on to commit war
crimes in Ukraine, or died as cannon fodder. Dima Ilyukhin, the filmmaker’s
cousin, was already the latter, having been killed during one of Putin’s black
ops in Dagestan. Alexander Abaturov contrasts the Spetsnaz militarist indoctrination
with the grief and despair of Ilyukhin’s family in The Son, which
premieres this coming Tuesday on OVID.tv.
There
is no commentary on Dagestan or the related operations in Chechnya and Crimean
Ukraine, so Abaturov never directly criticizes Putin’s fascist military campaigns.
However, he captures the tragic results for Ilykhin’s family in scenes of
unvarnished intimacy, which definitely would not be good for Putin’s business, if
more Russians had the opportunity to watch it.
Frankly,
the training sequences do not look particularly extraordinary or damning. Yes,
the process is physically and emotionally demanding. That is what military
discipline is like. Still, I hope someone in the U.S. military eventually
watches this film, in case they pick up on something lost on us civilians.
Regardless,
anyone can see the anguish of Ilykhin’s parents. Surprisingly, his mom seems to
be handling it better. She even seems to be settling into the role of grieving
military mother and the minor leadership status it entails. However, his father
appears to be literally and profoundly inconsolable.
