Etudi o ljubvi II

"Chaos and paradox, coincidence and necessity determine the course of history. We are all participants in this game." Says Russian filmmaker Vitali Manski, who made the provoking film LENIN'S CORPSE in 1990. One year later, in ETUDES ABOUT LOVE I, he followed the fortunes of a group of people in Moscow who lived in a damp, dark and dilapidated basement, not one hundred yards from the Kremlin. Manski considered these lives "as a prism through which we see Russian life". In ETUDES ABOUT LOVE II - BIG SALE, Manski returns to the basement and its occupants three years later. In the meantime part of the building has fallen down. Some people have moved, others have died. The only window in the basement is darkened by a new McDonalds' restaurant. Symbolic for the new balance of power, the McDonalds outlet is higher than the Kremlin's minarets.