Melodia!: Screening “Hipsters” by Valery Todorovsky

Kino Klassika is delighted to take part in the British Film Institute’s Musicals! season, and present film “Hipsters”, directed by Valery Todorovsky. It remembers a largely forgotten 1950’s counterculture, that of ‘Stilyagis’, Western-style hipsters. Todorovsky’s film cleverly subverts this narrative. Through the plot and use of Soviet music from various decades, he makes it clear that whilst the western aesthetic inspired the counterculture, the spirit of it is Soviet. The hero Mel was once a Komsomol member, before falling in love with Polly and being drawn into this new world. He faces opposition from the communal building he lives in, his brother and his old Komsomol friends. His search for individuality draws him closer to Pol and further from what is familiar. Stilyagi wears its’ self-awareness lightly and challenges the polarised narrative of ideologue and dissident which might be part of the reason for its popularity.

In Russian with English subtitles.