Stopover? Non-Fiction Movies in the First Decade After the Millennium

Abstract

The article presents new conditions for the production of national
documentary movies at the beginning of 21st century, as well as the creative
atmosphere and style searches of filmmakers in the field of studying the inner
world of our contemporary. The traditional film portrait of a documentary
hero used to present them as part of a holistic public space and therefore the
relationship between an individual and the society was the key issue in the
documentary of previous decades. New times have primarily focused on the
private space of a particular person, distanced from the help of or confrontation
with the society. The conflict between good and evil unfolds on the material of
the individual’s independent choice. The form of relations between the filmmaker
and the hero changes, instead of the traditional observation, a dialogue of peers
appears, giving rise to new forms of stylistic and genre solutions. The article
offers a wide panorama of thematic searches for a documentary portrait, as
well as a study of style innovations: manifestation, construction, composition,
docudrama. Among the movies revealing the new artistic moves of documentary
filmmakers of the first decade of the 21st century: “Mother” by P. Kostomarov
and A. Katten, “Last Bow. Victor Astafiev” by M. Litvyakov, “Sister” and “Lisa”
by P. Fattakhutdinov, “G. Zhzhenov. Russian Cross” by S. Miroshnichenko, “War
and Peace of Colonel Kersky” by M. Rezvushkina and others.