T.A.P.E. LA presents Karen Shakhnazarov’s Zerograd—made available through L.A. based distribution and restoration company Deaf Crocodile.

In the waning years of The Soviet Union, then-president Mikhail Gorbachev made efforts to save the dying empire's political and cultural systems through a series of reforms, some of which loosened cultural censorship. Because of these reforms, Shakhnazarov was in a position to make Zerograd in 1988, a Kafkaesque satire of life under authoritarian rule. The film not only taps into the surreality of Soviet cultural oppression, but pokes fun at Gorbachev actively attempting to resuscitate an empire that was already on its way out.

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SYNOPSIS

The film follows Alexey Varakin, an engineer from Moscow, as he attempts to contact the mechanical plant responsible for supplying his company with AC units. At every turn Varakin is subjected to new forms of the dizzying spell of authoritarianism—accused of a crime he didn’t commit, force fed false realities and histories, led to believe he isn’t who thinks he is. The film is dreamlike in its refusal to come into focus, never letting up and never letting the audience for a second escape the fantasy world imposed on the film’s protagonist—a relentlessness that mimics life under Soviet rule.

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dir Karen Shakhnazarov, 1988
Russia, digital projection
103 min

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7:30 DOORS
8:00 SCREENING

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Presented by T.A.P.E. - a Los Angeles based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to facilitating support for analog media through free digitizing, education, hands-on training, equipment rentals and volunteer opportunities. Teach, archive, preserve, exhibit.