LA Premiere: GENERATION P (Victor Ginzburg, 2011)
Event Date: February 28, 2012 - 7:30pm
Location: The James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall 1409, UCLA
GENERATION P, adapted from the iconic bestseller by Victor Pelevin, is a rude and funny dispatch about Moscow in the '90s, ground zero to the money, terror, and image-driven logic which replaced the Cold War.
The story details the parallel rise of poet-turned-copywriter Babylen Tatarsky through both a nascent advertising business and the shadowy Cult of Ishtar, whose acolytes control the media. Along the way, we meet, among others, Che Guevara, a fiery dragon with very bad news about TV, and a chauffeur with a marked resemblance to Vladimir Putin, who is elected president of Russia.
When Babylen was a "Young Pioneer," his generation received a gift from the decaying Soviet state in the form of a bottle of Pepsi, made in Russia. Not just a beverage, it was also a symbol of hope that someday a new, magical life would arrive from the other side of the ocean and transform their lives. The arrival of this new magic, and what it did and did not transform, is the story of Generation P.
GENERATION P is a riddle, a farce, a romance about the ecstasy of disintegration, and a joke about the end of the world.
Update (02/25/12): Join us for a post-show Q&A with co-writer, producer, and costume designer Djina Ginzburg, co-producer Jim Steele, and co-producer Roger Trilling, moderated by the Melnitz Movies Director Samuel B. Prime!
“A virtuoso BRAZIL-like look at what followed after capitalism won the Cold War… GENERATION P brings a subversive appeal, boasting impressive production values for a story that demands period detail and significant visual scope." –Peter Debruge, Variety
“P is for punk-spirited, post-Perestroika pastiche in Victor Ginzburg's ambitious adaptation of Generation P…a wildly satirical movie… Think of a Russian Monty Python — on LSD." - David D’Arcy, ARTINFO
“Among 10 must-see-films…a William S. Burroughs riff for the 21st century…an uncompromising vision from a tattered mind, a journey through the abyss." –Andrew McCants, Video Zone
"Ginzburg’s adaptation proves a bold, sprawling, iconoclastic affair…bursting with big ideas and lysergic energy." –Gabriel Tate, Time Out London
Special Mention, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection, Sputnik Russian Film Festival
Official Selection, Mumbai International Film Festival
Official Selection, Moscow Film Festival
Opening Film, London Festival of Russian Film
Director: Victor Ginzburg
Writers: Djina Ginzburg & Victor Ginzburg (screenplay), Viktor Pelevin (novel)
Starring: Vladimir Yepifantsev, Michael Yefremov, Andrei Fomin, Sergei Shnurov, Vladimir Menshov
Generation P, LLC / Room
Blu-Ray, 112 min.
