Petra Dankova
RU 385
Spring 2004 Film Review # 2
Window to Paris Yuri Mamin's Window to Paris is a sharp commentary on life in early 1990's Russia, as it is slowly abandoning Communism and struggling to define itself in new terms vis a vis western Europe. In the opening sequence we witness how the famous communist anthem "The International" still holds much sway over the people of St.Petersburg. But as the shot down a bleak run-down street slowly refocuses from the crowd of people marching behind a rag tag brass quartet onto a "construction ahead" road sign hanging above the street, we realize that Mamin intends to talk more about the future than dwelling on the past. His film contains an interesting warning about the future of Russia. Much of this message is conveyed through several episodes of the film connected to school and children.

Nikolai, the main character of the film, is a teacher of music. Based on his relationship with his students and colleagues, we can guess at the prospects of Russia in the near (and more distant) future. In the school setting, Nikolai is portrayed as a prophet of kinds. He has a magic power over his students. When he starts playing his flute, his students dance and follow him. The scene strongly reminded me of the old German tale about the Pied Piper. But whereas the Pied Piper lures the children away from their parents in order to punish the latter, Nikolai seems to use his charisma to bring the children back to the "right path." His music awakes in the children a spontaneity that strongly contrasts with their pseudo-business uniforms and bow ties.

However Nikolai's colleagues and superiors do not like to see their pupils acting like children. They are looking for order and profit not creativity and intellectual growth. Among them, Nikolai is not a prophet but a martyr suffering for his convictions. After his class is interrupted by the delivery of computers, he pleads with the headmaster of the school that the most valuable equipment is not the newest computer technology but the hearts of the students. And when he is dismissed as impractical, he smashes the computers in a style similar to the biblical description of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the Jerusalem temple.

The conflict between Nikolai and his colleagues is most vivid when he is called to a school meeting to be fired. He enters barefoot into a room full of people aspiring to look like western businessmen (although especially among the women we get the feeling that they are selling themselves more than anything else). As a testimony to the true values of the school we see details of foreign banknotes exhibited on the walls, where formerly probably used to hang portraits of prominent communist officials. Nikolai stands alone at one end of a very long table. With everyone's gaze fixed on him, he is read the reasons for his dismissal as if he was being charged with murder or treason. He does not plead with his accusers, but as his "farewell speech," he accuses his colleagues of hypocrisy with the heartfelt claim that they educate "builders of capitalism" as they used to educate builders of communism and that the end product is the same in both cases - "predators, ignoramuses, thieves." Yuri Mamin uses Nikolai as a warning voice against repeating the mistakes of communism in disguise of different ideology. But at the same time, it should be clear to the viewers from all the encounters with the other teachers that I just described, that no matter how much more beneficial it could be if more Russians behaved like Nikolai, his kind of people (and concerns) are rare and are more likely losing the battle against the utilitarian mode of thinking.

It also seems that the children do not really need the adults to tell them how to adapt to the new situation. They pick up quickly on the strategies of holding political protests and (ab)using strikes as a means of getting what they want. But what seem to me even more worrisome is the new picture of the West that the children have already developed. For them, the West is not an enemy but an easy escape from Russia. Begging, washing dishes, or prostituting themselves seems to them more desirable than anything they could do in Russia. It is frightening that it is not Nikolai's emotional plea but only his magic power that makes them change from money-counting pragmatists back into children, start dancing again and follow him back to Russia.

It seems that in Mamin's eyes the new as much as the old generation are susceptible to the temptations of the new western influences. And they are both in danger of being crushed by the changes in society. This idea is in my opinion excellently and succinctly expressed in the final scene, when the men start digging at the foot of the great, endless wall that separates them from the West. I felt that I wanted them to get through but at the same time I was worried that they might indeed succeed in breaking the wall but that in the process of doing so, the wall might tumble down and kill them all in its rubble. This I think is a good metaphor for the warning that Yuri Mamin issues to Russia in Window to Paris.