Dolya Gavanski <strong>The</strong> other Mother Russia As International Women’s Day approaches, we talk to the filmmaker who found out what that means to women living in the former Soviet Union Words JESS HOLLAND Photography OSSI PIISPANEN From the pioneering cosmonaut who flew a solo space mission to a presentday Instagram star, what were the past 100 years of Soviet and Russian history like for the women who lived through them? This question is answered by Women’s Day, subtitled Daughters of the Russian Revolution, a documentary by Dolya Gavanski, a writer, actor and director whose formative years – the ’80s and early ’90s – were split between Belgrade, Samarkand (in Uzbekistan), St Petersburg and Moscow. Now based in London, she is best known to gamers as the voice of the pinkhaired Siberian soldier Zarya in the first-person shooter Overwatch. After a London screening of Women’s Day, Gavanski explained to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> what drew her to the narrative of the film, which encompasses AI technologists, feminist dissidents, dancers, Stalingrad siege survivors, and the key to great sex in a communal flat: “At some point, you no longer care.” the red bulletin: How did you come to choose Women’s Day as a narrative thread? dolya gavanski: I did an exhibition in London a few years ago looking at how Soviet propaganda portrayed women. On <strong>March</strong> 8 [International Women’s Day], they would film a lot to show the achievements of the state. You see all these women going into war or engaging in very hard labour and still smiling. I wanted to see the reality behind these smiling faces, because we all grew up with these contradictions. On the one hand, you’re told everything’s amazing; on the other, there are gulags and many, many victims. Was it important to capture both sides of this? Yes, I wanted to give these women the space to talk and not to try to impose my view on them. Take the veteran of Stalingrad, for example. Her life has been marked by the war, so who am I to judge her? I don’t agree with a lot of her views, but I haven’t gone through [what she has]. She’s 95. Her whole flat is red and she has all the [Soviet] memorabilia. After three hours of conversation, she broke down and said, “I’m still there. I’m still at war. I can’t leave the war.” Was it hard to shake off the ‘Young Pioneer’ mindset of your youth? I grew up in Belgrade, which was a bit different [from the Soviet Union], but still it was very much socialism. I remember coming back from school when I was about seven and asking my mum, “Who am I meant to love more: you or [late Yugoslav president] Tito?” <strong>The</strong>re’s a certain romanticism to it. You’re part of the bigger social corps, which is powerful to an impressionable child. <strong>The</strong>n, by the time I was 11, everything was falling apart and Yugoslavia went through a civil war. Suddenly you don’t really have a country any more. Are you nostalgic for that time? Nostalgia exists more among older generations, because they felt more secure. But there are plenty who can’t bear the word Soviet, because their family histories were tragic. In the film, you discuss going on a date to McDonald’s after the fall of the Iron Curtain… <strong>The</strong>re was hysteria at the time about McDonald’s, which cost the same as a meal in a restaurant. <strong>The</strong>re were only a couple of places open then. <strong>The</strong> first night club in Moscow was called Night Flight and it was full of foreigners, prostitutes, kids and the mafia. It was the most surreal world. <strong>The</strong>re wasn’t much, but there was a great sense of freedom. Everything was changing. <strong>The</strong>re were no set rules. Was Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich an obvious inclusion? Yes, her book <strong>The</strong> Unwomanly Face of War gives space for a different type of voice to be heard. <strong>The</strong> usual [WWII narrative] would be the great heroic achievements. Here you see: “What’s it like when there are no sanitary pads?” She says that men betrayed women after the war, because they wanted a beautiful woman, not one who smelt of war. Also prominent is Pasha Angelina, the leader of an all-female tractor brigade in the ’30s… She was from a small village in Ukraine and became this glorified symbol of a successful woman. Her daughter told me that letters just marked ‘Pasha Angelina, USSR’ would get to their village. Why did you also include a young make-up artist working today? It’s linked with the idea of what a women is meant to be like now. In the Soviet period, a woman was not supposed to dress in colourful clothes. Make-up was seen as a bourgeois, frivolous Western thing. Have current affairs sparked renewed interest in Soviet history? Without understanding Soviet culture, it’s almost impossible to have a proper take on Eastern Europe in general. But also, yes, we’re probably questioning a lot of things at the moment. How do we structure society for the greatest good of all? How can women have equal rights if there are no provisions for childcare? Also, it’s very tense [politically], so why is Russia like this at the moment? It’s an interesting time. theafilms.com/soviet-women GROOMING BY AMBER SIBLEY USING TROPIC 24 THE RED BULLETIN
”I wanted to give all these women the space to talk” THE RED BULLETIN 25
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