Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

An amazing series, filled with extraordinary first-hand archive footage presented without audio narration that provides viewers with unique and often highly-intimate perspectives on life in the USSR and Russia during this period. Overlaid only with basic English text, it provides an unfiltered and graphic visualisation of the often-appalling world that Soviet citizens endured - and then how dark malignant forces took root. Watching this series helps one to better understand why Russia and her neighbours are the way they are today, to appreciate the immense pain and endless hardships endured by generations of people across a vast stretch of land. It feels epic and is epically insightful in the process. Brilliantly presented, compelling TV. Living history at its best.

Loved it, as I do with all of Curtis's films.

That being said I was first put off by the lack of narration. Upon further reflection I mostly find Curtis's narration and attempts at sensemaking confounding anyway. This footage mostly doesn't need it.

The dissolution of the Sovjet Union is right at the cusp of that which I recognize from everyday life and that which is completely foreign to my personal experience. This series reflects this back to me perfectly. It is both fascinating and unnerving to watch, like actually being there, not fully understanding where you are or what to do. I suspect the people portrayed must have felt similarly.

If the point is to give an emotional history of the events this series is most certainly the best effort I can imagine. The footage is well chosen and the lack of music makes for a pretty raw emotional imprint.

What an unexpected jem. I can't thank the various BBC journalists that shot this enough for the almost unbelievable insight it gives into the Russian past and also what's happening today.

To be able to see things from the top political levels right down to what it was like in day to day Russian life on the ground is brilliant.

Having visited Moscow and Ukraine I found it a shocking insight into what was invisible to a casual tourist but lurking beneath the surface.

Just a pity that my current favourite BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg doesn't seem to have had any involvement so far.

Truth must prevail !

It's a masterpiece and a mammoth production undertaking, very cleverly edited where each episode allows the viewer to follow a few particular people featured throughout for instance, intersped by various other events throughout the (former) Soviet Union. Although in some sense, it's just a countless number of bits of BBC video spliced together, it is much more than that and very cleverly done. There's no spoken narration but some great sound and music: pop, choral & even some dancing authentically attached to the videos, and only a few very good succinct subtitles to give some sense of the wider history. There is so much material, in such detail, from so many perspectives that in the way it's done it represents something of a vast video social history of Russia in the end of the 20th century. There are a few of the political players, but mostly just suffering ordinary people, not to mention the odd bear, monkey, a forlorn hungry zoo tigress... One can gather quite a lot about the historical political situation from the point of view of the traumatised masses and from so many different locations and ethnicities across this great nation imploding under the weight of kleptocracy. A 9000km long tragic crime scene.

Trauma zone is profoundly affecting, It's a series that is so disconcerting, chaotic, unsettling and surprising that I found I couldn't binge watch it. I had to take my time to digest what I was seeing. I lived through the period in question and had literally no idea of what was really happening in Russia. This is more a work of art or perhaps an "emotional history" than a straight history (and looking at some of these reviews some people have not appreciated this). It's aiming to reflect what it was like to live through this and frankly I am surprised if anyone in Russia retained 100% of their sanity with everything that happened. This series is stupendous in its breadth and the footage it includes provides a disturbing insight into a turbulent and almost hallucinogenic period of recent history for Russia and the former USSR. It's brilliant basically.