On the scenes where Berton is watching his speech some 20 years before? Yes, I was thinking the same thing! Blacks really DID live in Russia as Russians!
Also, the indoor smoking and horn-rimmed glasses was too 70's! They should have known that in the future glasses would change!
Why are people so surprised by this? The old USSR had thousands of ethnicities within it, most of them not exactly "white"
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There is no reference to Russia or any other specific place in the movie. The location is kept vague. They also quite deliberately used non-Russian actors incl in the title role, and names.
-- Mothershytter... Son of an ass!!
I`m quite sure Tarkovsky used the Lithuanian Banionis and Estonian Järvet as leads because they were most suitable for their roles, not due to some conceptual considerations. And finding a black dude in Soviet Union was about as likely as finding an Eskimo in Equatorial Africa (the few that were to be found, were usually African exchange students).
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Actually the Soviet Union had plenty of African students in it. They used to train people up in the USSR and send them back to Africa, often to Communist countries.
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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!
I see franzkabuki is showing his ignorance again... black people were not particularly uncommon in the USSR as there were many students from African countries and even (shock horror) quite a few African-Americans who were denied places in good universities in the USA and thus escaped to the USSR to escape US racism.
Contrary to the view of the "Eastern Block" as being the evilest region in the world the countries were far less racist than most western countries of the same period and most Eastern Europeans found the treatment of African-Americans confusing, shocking and disgraceful. Many films were made about this in the USSR as that was something the USSR had over the USA... human beings didn't regularly get lynched for their skin tone.
"The game's afoot!"
"As there were many students from African countries".
Which is what I said, numbnuts - without making it sound as if USSR was awash with them. However, all this "tolerance" was a part of the government's official propaganda to show off just how "progressive" the maximum security sh-thole was, not necessarily reflecting the actual attitudes shared by the common folk (or even the party bosses themselves).
"Human beings didn't regularly get lynched for their skin tone".
Human beings didn't "regularly get lynched for their skin tone" in the post-war USA, either.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Over the last ten years I traveled many times to an west african country, Cape Vert, which was part of the comunist world back in the 70's and 80's. A lot of students from that country traveled to Russia that time. Therefore, I heard a lot of frightening stories about the way russian people treated african students. Let me put it in a simple way: back then in Russia it was very common at spring to find black man bodies in defreezing lakes or piles of snow and ice. They were simply killed during winter because they started relationships with russian girls, and an angry father, brother, friend or ex-boyfriend couldn't allow it.
And if someone says that it happened many years ago, let me tell another story. Just a few years ago, a white girl from Cape Vert (yes, there are white people from african countries) traveled with her black husband to Russia. One day they were walking in a street and noticed two guys chasing them. The guys stated clearly that a russian girl (they thought she was a russian girl) with a black man was unbearable to them. The couple took a cab trying to escape, but the two guys chased them in a motorcycle, screaming insults and calling her wh*re. The chase ended only when the girl showed her foreign passport and prooved she was not from Russia.
But I need to say that a lot of russian girls married african students in past and present (the ties between countries and governments are not easily broken) and traveled to african countries. And that's why it's common nowaday to find guys with russian or eastern Europe last names in Cape Vert.
Utter nonsense, especially this "back then in Russia it was very common at spring to find black man bodies in defreezing lakes or piles of snow and ice". Either you or your Cape Vert friends are just making things up.
I've lived near a Moscow military academy for about 20 years. I also spend my college years not far from Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the most well-known international university. There were (and are) plenty of black students studying there. Nobody cares, not even pays attention if a black or Korean student is walking down the street. There are enough of Russian-African families living in Russia, as well as popular actors/journalists/entertainers of black colour who were born in those families.
The eastern block countries were never "far less racist" than most western countries of the same period. My opinion is informed by the historical record and by my talks with people who have lived there throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. And the same can be said for anti-Jewish bigotry.
My real name is Jeff
Stalin opposed race mixing as did everybody afterwards. They put on a front people. Stalin also called homosexuality the "extreme decadence of the bourgeois".
shareJust like the above poster pointed, I too think Tarkovsky used that to point out the world would be with mixed ethnicity in future.
shareWhat do you mean "Blacks really DID live in Russia as Russians". Many Blacks were in Russia, usually being trained for terrorist groups. They were not there "as Russians".
shareblack man in the background?
Are you sure he was really black? Might have been a shadow.
share