FILM
The hippie movement that captivated hundreds of thousands of young people in the West had a profound impact on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Within the Soviet system, a colorful crowd of artists, musicians, freaks, vagabonds and other long-haired drop-outs created their own system, which connected those who believed in peace, love, and freedom for their bodies and souls.
More than 40 years later, a group of eccentric hippies from Estonia take a road trip to Moscow where the hippies still gather annually on the 1st of June for celebration that is related to the tragic event in 1971, when thousands of Soviet hippies were arrested by the KGB. The journey through time and dimensions goes deep into the psychedelic underground world in which these people strived for freedom.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Recent rise of authoritarianism, setbacks in the struggles for social justice and the occurrence of wars – including the one in Ukraine – demands continuous discussion on the idea of non-violence. The Soviet Hippies sheds light on the history of the pacifist movement in Russia and Eastern Europe, and proposes an alternative trajectory in global cultural memory, demonstrating the vast creative potential that emerged within the totalitarian regime.
The film raises important points about the workings of power and the politics of ecstasy, ultimately tackling the questions of freedom and self-fulfillment. Soviet hippies struggled for their sense of freedom in many ways, but after the turn of the politicisation of the movement in 1970-1971, their active engagement with politics either ended up severely or didn’t change anything for better. They rather wanted to get as far as possible from everything they considered as political, so that the society wouldn’t disturb them and they in turn wouldn’t disturb the society. In the socio-political landscape of contemporary Russia, these sentiments reoccur in frightening clarity.
The story of the main protagonist, Aare, suggests that being trapped by a body which is ill leaves little choice but to focus on the vast potential of internal dreamscapes. But how to deal with the feeling of being trapped by a society which is ill?
Terje Toomistu
Director and script-writer
