Stilyagi (film)

Stilyagi (Russian: Стиляги, also known as Hipsters inthe English release) is a 2008 Russian musical comedy-drama film directed by Valery Todorovsky and starringAnton Shagin and Oksana Akinshina. Set in mid-1950sMoscow, the film depicts the Soviet youth subculture"stilyagi", along with their struggle for self-expressionwithin the prevailing reality of the Soviet repression.[1]

Stilyagi has been featured at the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival, Nashville Film Festival, and the ClevelandInternational Film Festival, where it has been an audiencefavorite. It won the Audience Choice Award at the An-chorage International Film Festival in 2009 and severalGolden Eagle Awards and Nika Awards, including BestFilm in both.[2] In Russia, it has become a cult film, asmost of its score consists of covers of 1980s and 1990sRussian rock music from bands such as Bravo, NautilusPompilius, Nol and the Red Elvises.

1 Reception and legacy

The film currently holds a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb and a67/100 rating on Metascore. In Russia, the movie re-ceived mostly positive ratings and mixed reviews (manyof the critics accused Stilyagi of being anachronistic withregards to the historical events), as well as two awards:Nike (2008) and Golden Eagle (2009). It has spawnedan interest in namesake subculture, with parts of it soonintegrated in Russian youth fashion stream, as well as in-creased interest for musical instruments such as the saxo-phone and the trumpet among young Russian pop musicproducers. Starting 2011, the film was also spun off intoa musical concert which has toured Europe and NorthAmerica during the same year.

2 Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film includes hits from well-known Soviet rock bands such as Kino, Mashina Vre-meni and Nautilius Pompilius. It features covers of sev-eral 1970s and 1980s songs with different lyrics.

3 Synopsis

In 1955, a group of young Muscovite Komsomol (com-munist youth) students led by Katerina intercepts illegal

stilyagi gatherings in Gorky Park. Perceived as “enemiesof society”, the stilyagi are forced to flee, with many ofthem getting caught and their clothing, ties or hair cutby the Komsomol for demonstrative purposes. Mels, atwenty-year-old paragon athletic student and member ofthe Komsomol, is ordered by Katia to chase one of theescapists, another young girl. However, the girl soontricks him into believing that she broke her ankle, andthen abruptly pushes Mels into a pond, at the same timeinviting him to “come spend some time with Polly (Rus-sian: Польза, wordplay on “benefit”) on the Broadway”.The next day, Mels visits Gorky street and runs into thesame group of stilyagi, with Polly among them. Beforebeing aggressively seized by Dryn, another member, hehas a short talk with Polly during which she gives him akiss on the cheek, all while asking Mels if he has gottensick. Fred, the leader of the gang, then appears, callingMels an “innocent little schlub", and all the stilyagi leavethe scene in Fred’s car. Determined to being in love withPolly, Mels decides to change himself for someone shewould appreciate: a stilyaga.Upon visiting local cloth retailers, Mels finds out that allthe clothes sold there are alike, with no stark differences.He then gets called into an alley by an imported goodsdealer, who sends Mels to a former textile factory opera-tor, now retired and making on demand clothes for “dif-ferent” people (clandestinely). Soon, Mels gets his newoutfit prepared, turns a pair of regular shoes into high-platforms at his father’s workplace factory, creates a com-pound to make his hair stay up, etc. When he comes outof his room dressed like a stilyaga, his father, whom helives with, joyfully approves of the change as a phase ofself-expression. However, Mels’ younger brother, as wellas all of the neighbours inside their communal apartment,give him the cold shoulder and remain speechless. Melsgets people shoving him and throwing things at him onthe street, but continues on to find another member ofthe stilyagi, Jewish medical student Bob.Mels intercepts Bob near his house and starts questioninghim about learning to dance like them, with Bob mainlyreluctant to respond by distrust (believing it to be a trap).Mels insists and finally the two visit Bob’s apartment,where they have fun at dancing the boogie to bootleggedsongs. Their party crashes when Bob’s parents get homeand Mels is obliged to leave. Now having a reliable con-nection to the gang, Mels finds Bob and the rest of stilyaginear a local theater, trying to get in. First hesitant, Pollyand the others finally accept Mels amongst them, just asFred arrives and provides everyone VIP entry. Mels as-

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sists a show of rock-n-roll songs, one of them performedby Fred, and has fun dancing with the others. On theirway back, the stilyagi promptly meet with the komsomoland as two gangs clash, Katerina sees Mels amongst herenemies. Still confused by his actions, she then watchesPolly take Mel’s hand on purpose, and ends up publiclyscolding him.At Fred’s party, Mels sees that Polly still remains mainlyindifferent to him. He asks Fred for help, but ends uphearing a bad advice, much to the amusement of the restof the gang. As he remains alone with her in a room,she tricks him again by excusing her to go to the bath-room, with the gang then busting him naked as he thoughtthat the two would have sex. Despite the embarrassment,Mels’ determination to change into a better man for Pollyis not extinguished, and he gets Fred’s appreciation forthis. Later Fred suggests that Mels learns to perform inorder to impress girls, as he himself does. The remarkleaves Mels determined to find a saxophone and learn toplay it.Several days later Mels meets the clothes dealer again andinsists on obtaining a saxophone. The dealer leads himto an upbeat traveling jazzman whose career was brokenby the Stalinist regime after he chose the “wrong” instru-ment. Themusician proposes to do a favor of sellingMelshis own saxophone, if Mels learns how to play it first.Mels then spends several nights listening to pirate radiofrom New York City trying to improvise the sound on thesaxophone, but ends up faking it multiple times, until heis visited by the spirit of Charlie Parker who seeminglyteaches him to play properly. This soon has Mels per-forming for his friends in a theater, of which he is nervousat first, yet he finally finds the vibe to much applause fromthe gang. At the end, Polly comes and gives Mels her firstsincere kiss.Soon after, Fred reveals to the gang that his father, a ma-jor diplomatic figure, has arranged a diplomatic post forhim in the United States, and he nowmust leave the coun-try, albeit provided that he marries a Soviet woman froman “approved” family, first, abandoning his lower-class,unconnected girlfriend, Betsy. Since Fred has the mostauthority in terms of leader, he grants future leadership toMels, creating a situation of disdain in othermembers andeventually arising tensions. Katerina, somewhat aware ofthese events, decides to try to lure Mels away from Pollyby dressing better than her. As the two meet, she soonfeels that Mels doesn't fall for her, and as she corners him,he rejects her, explaining that she has not changed at all.Furious, Katerina slaps him and runs away. The next day,Mels comes to class realizing that a meeting is being or-ganized by Katerina with the purpose of excluding himfrom the Komsomol for being a rootless cosmopolitan.He silently gives away his badge, thus sealing his choiceof remaining a stilyaga.Although Mels gets great popular attention with hisperformances during the following months, he doesn't

see that around him, the former stilyagi start pacingdown their lives as, apparently, their lifestyle gets themnowhere. One night Polly meets drunk Mels at the barand announces to him that she is pregnant with a child ofan exchange African medical worker whom she met asintern and who was much older than her. Mels remainsoptimistic to raising the child anyway, but does not tellthe others about its origins. As he settles down to be-come a father, the popularity of the stilyagi slowly turnsinto collective friend gatherings instead. The next year,Polly gives birth to an African child boy, John, but Mels’family and neighbors in the communal apartment end upaccepting him as their own, despite the differences.Months later, Fred returns from the United States to visitMels. Having himself outgrown the movement by now,he witnesses a family living by Soviet standards withMels still dressing as a stilyaga, and Polly raising a black-skinned toddler. Mels then tells Fred that most of theother members of their former gang moved on with theirlives, with Bob eventually arrested and sent off to Siberiafor buying illegal records from a smuggler, Dryn gettinginto the army, etc. They share a bottle of Jack Daniel’s,after which Fred promptly reveals to Mels that there areno “stilyagi” in the United States, and that he has nevermet there anyone living the same lifestyle, as such flam-boyant behavior and such disrespect for the laws wouldhave had them locked up in a mental asylum in mere min-utes. Appalled by this, Mels shouts at Fred, telling himto get lost, and rhetorically states to himself: “But we doexist...”The film ends withMels performing a song (together withthe remaining stilyagi) that draws parallels between hismovement and that of the late 1980s “nonconformist” So-viet countercultures (such as rockers and punks, amongothers), the moral of which is the importance of remem-bering to always stand for the values one believes in,which in turn allows for any of these cultures to be re-membered over time.

4 External links• Stilyagi at the Internet Movie Database

5 References[1] Stilyagi at the Internet Movie Database

[2] “TIMDB: Awards for Stilyagi”. Internet Movie Database.2010. Retrieved 2010-03-27.

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6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text• Stilyagi (film) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilyagi_(film)?oldid=688050191 Contributors: Altenmann, Velella, Woohookitty,BD2412, Rjwilmsi, Arthur Rubin, NiTenIchiRyu, Wakuran, Sleepyasthesouth, QuiteUnusual, Bovineboy2008, Aspects, Fuddle, Chainiki,Addbot, Guffydrawers, Dmitry Rozhkov, Legobot, Idot, FrescoBot, Lothar von Richthofen, WikitanvirBot, GoingBatty, SporkBot, Clue-Bot NG, Polskivinnik, BG19bot, CityOfSilver, Rosciood, RudolfRed, Dexbot, Spaceinvadersaresmokinggrass, Iseesky, Vikstein, Lawren-cePrincipe and Anonymous: 24

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