20130820: Documentary Review--Miss Gulag

Miss GULAG

1. Russian live action feature length documentary, 2007, 80 minutes (IMDB estimate; Hulu+ ran 62 minutes).
2. Filmed in Novosibirsk, Russia, northeast of Kazakhstan and west of Mongolia. The spoken word is in Russian with English subtitles.
3. IMDB: 7.3/10 with 34 users.
4. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' and 40% from 61 audience ratings.
5. The film follows 3 women, Yulia, Tatiana, and Natasha who are in a Siberian prison camp (UF 91-9) in Novosibirsk.
6. The setting is a beauty pageant within the prison context.  The pageant is meant to ease the transitions of the prisoners back into regular life.
7. Yulia Lusak got 4 years for drug trafficking, for selling 0.3 grams of heroin.  She started her term in 2002; the pageant was 2.5 years later.
8. Tatiana Dasaeva received a sentence of 8 years for armed robbery.  Her mother died of her alcoholism, and she and her brother grew up in state boarding schools, which she blames for getting started into bad paths.  Later, her brother had a part time job with a gas station, and Tatiana asked the manager to keep her brother out of trouble.  That did not happen, and she took the manager to task for it.
9. Natasha Patalakhova was sentenced to 14 years for armed assault, of which she served 7 years, 5 months.  Her brother died of drug overdose, and she blamed the dealer.  She paid some other people to help her get revenge.  The drug dealer survived.  Natasha returned to sing at the pageant, and to give a pep talk.
10. The 'encouraged' labor at this prison was making cold-weather uniforms.
11. According to the film, 70% of all the unemployed individuals in Russia are women.  So the transition back into society is not easy.  Natasha encountered a catch-22. If one has proof of satisfactory work, the government will process your citizenship papers.  However, to get work one needs the papers before starting.
12. There was a fair amount of discussion about how wonderful is was back in days of the Soviet Union.
13. In the Hulu+ version, the narrative gets to the pageant 31 minutes in.
14. The pageant has three phases: (a) imaginary uniforms (the ones they would like, but do not have) (b) Greek goddesses and (c) dressed as a flower of some sort. There were real flowers given, and banners.  It was quite festive.
15. The guards were part of it all, and spiffed up for the filming.
16. The pageant ends with 15 minutes to go, and the narrative continues concerning the aftermath.  Tatiana got a parole hearing partly because she participated in the pageant. Her plea was accepted, and she left the prison with her family.  Yulia was released soon thereafter and went to live with her mother.
17. Four stars of five.

Cinematography: 7/10  Soft focus.  Archival footage was even softer focus black and white.

Sound: 9/10 The main speakers were well-miked.  The incidental music was OK.

Acting: N/A The principals were telling their stories, not acting.

Screenplay: 8/10  Reasonably well-organized.  The film was engaging enough in terms of narrative and pacing.