Age 7 (Soviet Union, 1990)


Figure 1.--Here we see the children participating in an Octoberist event.

Soviet film mskers produced a documentary film entitled "Age 7" It was shot in 1990 by by Sergei Miroshnichenko and Jemma Jupp. The famous Soviet-British journalist Seva Novgorodstev narrated the movie. The film was shot with the same conception of the British "Seven Up" film, some times called the "Up Series" produced by Michael Apted. The film makers follow a group of 7 year olds. There are a lot of school shots. One teacher let classroom singing with an acordian. The children seem to having a good time. Earlier schools scenes were more serious. We see a boy learing a flute in an after school program. Other children are learing bal;et. We see the children on the first day of school, a major event in the Soviet Union. We also see an Octoborist clebration. There are scenes at home as well as in an orphanage. This was a boading school for orphans who has a talent for music. The film is quite honest, something that was not often the case in Soviet films. The children complain that there is no bread or milk in the stores. We suspect that the fact that children are complaing made it a liitle more acceptable. It also reflects the opening of Soviet society in the final years of the Soviet Union. These scenes are contrasted with more affluent. Such differences was something else that Soviet film makers normally had to avoid. A Russian reader tells us, :In the late 1980s- early 90s a problem with food shortage was really serious in the USSR. Infinite queues where people waited for many hours to buy some bread or milk or meat or even cigarettes were common for all over the country. Often goods in stores were selled by fixed portion "per one pair of hands", so to buy 4 kilos of sugar four members of some family stayed in the queue." There were movies "14 years" and "21 years" made in 1997 and 2005. The movie "14-agers" won the International Emmy Award in 1998. ,








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Created: 10:02 AM 8/3/2010
Last updated: 10:43 AM 8/3/2010