There, Far Beyond the River

The creation story of the novella “Somewhere Far Away Beyond the River” began in the distant 1986. At that time, a draft film script was written. Of course, in the USSR even at the beginning of “perestroika” such a plot would never make it to the screen… It wouldn’t have reached discussion of the script either—the material turned out to be too… “ideologically unfit.” But in 1994 Andrei Lazarchuk returned to this material—and the novella “Somewhere Far Away Beyond the River” appeared.

Trouble struck a deserted city—a former “mail box”—populated by an agricultural commune: four children disappeared. The search for the missing led to the discovery of a horrifying secret left behind by the collapsed “country of victorious socialism.” The secret made itself known—literally, absolutely literally. It emerged, destroying everything alive in its path.

That’s roughly how one could retell the plot. But…

Lazarchuk wouldn’t be Lazarchuk if it were only a story about missing children and the events that followed. As in other works by Lazarchuk, behind the plot there is an entire layer of questions, problems, doubts, and contradictions.

“Somewhere Far Away Beyond the River” is a special world, similar to—yet not the same as—our present-day Russia. Precise details, tiny nuances—and we are immersed in the atmosphere of the novella. We listen to the characters’ conversations—and unconsciously begin to try their situations on ourselves, empathizing, hoping—right up to the very last page—and trying to see what will happen next…

So what is it?

A warning? A forecast? Something else? Fifteen years later, we can already ask the question—how different is our Russia from the one we see in the book? What would we be like if we had to end up in a similar situation?

The author of the answer doesn’t provide it. We have to find it ourselves. Each person for themselves.