Opisy(1)
The phrase in the title of this documentary is not an invention of the filmmaker, it is a quotation from a huge pile of application forms that were sent to Party bosses in 1989. It was a remarkable year. The year of the first Public Congress of Deputies who were really elected by the people, and the year of a striking liberation of the mass media and thinking. But a fire was already lit in Nagorno Karabakh, houses were already burning in Fergana, mothers were already crying out in Tbilisi, Novi Uzen, and the first flows of refugees fled Baku and Sumgait. Great confusion broke out and the outlines of the August coup, the Pridnestroviye war and the Caucasus conflicts were already vaguely showing. These events could all have been predicted, and everybody could have seen worse times coming. And it was clear for everybody that the revolution could not be accomplished with smart journalism only. The smell of perestroika is the smell of blood and smoke, and its voice is the scream of innocent victims. Film director Igor Vovnianko tries to express all these feelings of an impending storm. He travelled around the country that year, he saw a lot and discovered some more from participants in various events. He also met Boris Yeltsin, the future hero of the August 1991 coup, the future President of Russia and, at that time, the troubled Minister of Construction. Vovnianko also talked with fearless Telman Gdlian who restlessly revealed some wicked mafia deals within the Party. In this film we see the famous Nina Andreyeva, the defender of communist ideals, as well. But the main characters of the film are the people standing up off their knees. "Please expel me from my Communist Party membership." For many people this is the phrase which opens a narrow gate to freedom. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
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