Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

.... But after watching this, I realise I knew virtually nothing.

I was born in 1971 in the UK. I studied modern history. I lived through the of the Cold War and vividly remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I remember the attempted coup in Russia. I remember the joy at the Cold War ending and Russia emerging from communism

Watching this, I now realise all I had was a hideously narrow view of things. You can't help but feel utter sorrow for the Russian people as the world collapsed around them and the wealth of the country was stolen. It's heartbreaking

This is a horror film. It was aptly named.

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.

Adam Curtis blesses us again with another multi-hour, hard-hitting, raw documentary. The concept of the footage speaking for itself is risky; however, the bet pays off fully, transporting the viewer into a realm of real-life ultraviolence. While not entirely a novel concept, it is a far more intellectual endeavor than a pundit panel or a classic history documentary.

Growing up in the 1990es Russia, my recollections of the period are vague and are in the process of being excavated by a psychologist. The series rips up the protective cortisol abatement of psychological trauma I experienced only as a spectator - a seven-hour panic attack fueled by violence, injustice, and disregard for human life.

While this viewing experience may sound like a definition of Hell, it is strangely therapeutic - perhaps by being so personal. It also, perhaps unintentionally, has a message of perseverance in face of the horrors of the human condition.

Scene highlight: man drinking low-quality bootleg vodka with disgust - sums up the atrocities depicted in the documentary quite well.

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.