The 2000s: The True History of Russian Cinema

Push-button cellphones, the first memes, and Balabanov—this is how the 2000s sound. 2000s films unexpectedly gained cult status two decades later. This book is about why they began their “second life” and how it changed the way we perceive them.

Remember the era when movies weren’t discovered through algorithm suggestions, but by chance—flicking channels and suddenly landing on “that very” film?

– “Peter FM” was playing in theaters, while “City 312” people sang “I’ll Stay” in a way that sent shivers down your spine.
– “The Night Watch” was discussed by the whole class, and “Walk Out into the Darkness” was repeated even by those who never read Lukyanenko.
– “Cargo 200” wasn’t just something you watched—it was a test of endurance: late at night, in a dark room, on a laptop, in the company of friends.

The 2000s were the first torrents and agonizingly slow downloads—when you had to search for movies, track them down, fight for access—and fall in love with them despite the circumstances.

Film critic Maria Kuvshinina collected rare interviews with the authors, dug into archival materials, and talked with those who discovered these films in the 2020s—and saw something completely different in them.

What emerged was a lively conversation about films that, twenty years later, sounded anew and suddenly amassed millions of views among Zoomers:
– about “Peter FM,” which became an anthem for a generation searching for itself;
– about Anna Melikyan’s “The Mermaid”—unnoticed in 2007 and now perceived as a manifesto of freedom;
– about “Hitler, Kaput!” and other “embarrassing” cinema that you can finally watch without snobbery;
– and, of course, about Balabanov—a director who, year after year, seems both more understandable and more frightening at the same time.

This is an honest story about how we changed along with our movies—and why it’s precisely these films we’re rewatching now, finding answers to questions we’re only just learning to put into words.