Georgi Daneliya’s adventure with self-censorship and symbolism

 

Rudolf Prozserin

s1076590

Elective: Censorship and Social Transformation

 

Georgi Daneliya’s adventure with self-censorship and symbolism

Georgian film director Georgi Daneliya (გიორგი დანელია) directed the movie 33 in 1965, a “speculative fiction comedy” (Georgieva 1) starring Evgeniy P. Leonov (Евгений Павлович Леонов). The film presented a socio-critical perspective of the soviet society through an absurd story of a man with 33 teeth, his adventures in becoming famous for having an abnormal amount of teeth, leading him to a science-fictious adventure due to his Martian origin, only to wake up and see it was partially a dream. The film was banned for being anti-soviet. Daneliya directed another highly socio-critical film 21 years later. Either because of the introduction of Glasnost' or due to Kin-Dza-Dza!'s symbolist method, the movie was not banned, instead celebrated and has become well-known.

Kin-Dza-Dza! (Кин-дза-дза!) is a science-fiction cyberpunk dystopian fantasy film (4) about two soviet men [Gedevan Alexandrovich (Georgian) and Vladimir Nikolaevich (Muscovite)] finding themselves in the galaxy called Kin-Dza-Dza!, on planet Pl'uk. Once there, they get acquainted with two indigenous extra-terrestrial traveling artists. The two artists (Mr Wef and Bi) help the soviet “tourists” understand the local societal norms, which includes coloured-pants-differentiated social hierarchy, where the currency is matches and the language consists of a handful of words due to the telepathic nature of the locals. The first thing our heroes note to themselves is that it is a capitalist society. The planet Pl'uk is a desert planet as the oceans were transformed to fuel long ago. The ethnically and economically divided population is ruled by an authoritarian regime with ruthless laws and law enforcement agents. All ethical standards are replaced by strict – and absurd – rules, where one group of the population rules another. The technologically significantly more advanced people of Pl'uk demonstrate the worst human qualities with no remorse, however not being entirely alien to a soviet man of the mid-1980s. The socio-criticism and by extension the system-criticism of the far “other” inevitably forces the viewer to re-evaluate their own standards and makes one realise the utter grotesqueness of not only the capitalist world but also the very system that sanctioned this multi-layered cult film, that reached almost every household in the Soviet Union, generating expressions in the Russian language to be used and understood widely, thus bleeding into everyday conversations of the society bypassing the Goskino, the State Committee for Cinematography, the agency responsible for censoring motion picture in the USSR. The movie is divided into two parts, totaling a 135 minutes of detached and satirical entertainment for all ages, bringing about differing experiences among the varied viewers. The ever-relevant Kin-Dza-Dza! Still, even today generates fan-based material and the cult-phrase “Koo!” (Ку!) is widely known even among the youngest generation of the post-soviet population.

The adventures of Uncle Vova and Gedevan presents not only criticism of the state and the soviet society but through lovable main characters, about the viewer itself. The parallel between the two Pl'uk classes and the Russian and Georgian characters is undeniable. The bizarre social structure, burial ritual, economic system and ethical standards could not have passed the censor had the movie not used far-detached symbolism, science-fictious storyline and other means of self-censorship. Naturally, film making, as any other process of creating art, cannot in its entirety be a conscious effort. (Müller 25) As stated above, it is not sure whether Kin-Dza-Dza! escaped a ban due to a financial, societal, and ideological restructuring called Glasnost' or Daneliya's conscious and unconscious effort in self-censoring while still conveying a rebellious code to the public, after all the director was not unfamiliar with censorship of movies that are pushing the boundaries of the regime's grasp.

The indigenous Mr Wef and Bi demonstrated human character flaws such as greed, lack of empathy, and appeared as deceivers, but when in need, asked for the opposites of these negative attributes, requested mercy of the earthlings of the Soviet Union, perhaps pointing out obvious requirements, the need to be a decent, reasonable man. Daneliya not only rebelliously criticised the system, but educated the simple soviet man, reminding one of the universalities of humanity through humour, irony and other satirical tools, through a cyber-punk science-fiction movie, almost ridiculing the very need of grotesque symbolism to convey ideas critical of the status quo.

Bibliography

Georgieva, Margarita. Kin Dza Dza! (1986). 2010.

Müller, Beata. Censorship and cultural regulation: Mapping the territory. Critical Studies. Censorship and Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age. Ed. By Beate Müller. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2004, 1-31.