‘My Perestroika’ tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition.

My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times – from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia.

At the center of the film is a family.

Borya and Lyuba are married and have a son, Mark. They are both history teachers at a Moscow school. As we are drawn into the fabric of their everyday lives, we hear stories of two very different Soviet childhoods: Lyuba was a conformist who would salute the TV when the Soviet hymn played, while Borya, living with the consequences of being Jewish, preferred to subvert the system whenever possible.

Their childhood classmates provide their own perspectives. Andrei has thrived in the new Russian capitalism and has just opened his 17th store of expensive French men’s shirts. Olga, the prettiest girl in the class, is a single mother and works for a company that rents out billiard tables to bars and clubs all over Moscow. Ruslan was a famous Russian punk rock musician who now plays the banjo in the metro for money.

At first glance, in today’s Russia, everything is different from the lives they would have lived in the USSR. They are the invisible “ordinary” people of Moscow – raising their own children in a world they couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams.

But have those changes ultimately proved to be only superficial?

In this film, there are no “talking head” historians, no expert witnesses, no omniscient narrator telling viewers how to interpret events. Instead, Borya, Lyuba, Andrei, Olga and Ruslan share their personal stories. They were the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. They take us on a journey through their Soviet childhoods, their youth during the country’s huge changes of Perestroika, and let us into their present-day lives.

The film interweaves their contemporary world with rare home movie footage from the 1970s and ‘80s in the USSR, along with official Soviet propaganda films that surrounded them at the time. Their memories and opinions sometimes complement each other and sometimes contradict each other, but together they paint a complex picture of the challenges, dreams, and disillusionment of this generation in Moscow today.

Thursday, Jun 30, 2011

9:40pm · 5:20pm

Wednesday, Jun 29, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm

Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm

Monday, Jun 27, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm

Sunday, Jun 26, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm · 1:20pm

Saturday, Jun 25, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm · 1:20pm

Friday, Jun 24, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:20pm

Thursday, Jun 23, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm

Wednesday, Jun 22, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm

Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm

Monday, Jun 20, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm

Sunday, Jun 19, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm · 3:30pm · 1:30pm

Saturday, Jun 18, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm · 3:30pm · 1:30pm

Friday, Jun 17, 2011

9:40pm · 7:30pm · 5:30pm · 3:30pm