Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)

The Russia and Eastern Europe Club at school hosted a screening of this foreign-language Oscar winner from the Soviet Union. We watched a video off the internet that came with ads, making an already long movie even longer. Interestingly, the ads alternated between American burger ads and Italian fashion ads. The most frustrating thing was that it took us so long that they cut the power on us with 10 minutes to go. It wasn't even that late, maybe 10:30pm. I thought cutting the power on movies was something that only happened in third world countries. But I had to go home and finish it myself.

The movie is a portrait of Soviet life. I can't really remember too much about the movie anymore. I remember it was kind of funny, kind of sad, mostly sad. Reagan supposedly watched this movie to get a better understanding of the Russian sentiment. I watched a clip of the Oscars when the film won. And the filmmaker did not attend in 1980. Instead they sent someone from the Russian embassy, who made a short standard speech. It was a show of Russian soft power at the height of the Cold War. Russia did not project an environment of free speech, and they weren't about to let the filmmaker go off-script on the world stage. That's my theory anyways.