Authors

Discussion

Vladimir Rogovoi’s film Balamut (The Meddler) was the second most popular film of 1979, selling over 39 million tickets. It follows a group of students’ romantic (mis)adventures. In this paper, I investigate how Balamut represents contemporary gendered and racialised assumptions of young people’s romantic experiences.

The university was typically viewed as a place for sexual freedom and promiscuity. Unlike the school, the university was seen as a cosmopolitan and diverse space, given the number of international students that came to the USSR. Questions of sexual and romantic behaviour in the film are layered with stereotypes about different groups, and the divide between urban and rural life.

I demonstrate that Rogovoi’s depiction of ethnic and national identity constructs a superior Russian identity while using images which reinforce the idea of the brotherhood of nations. While the film creates an image of internationalism through its depiction of a diverse student body, this ideology is never given more than superficial expression. Instead, I argue that the film reflects the hypocrisies of the Soviet approach to international and racial solidarity, placing non-Russian characters in secondary, caricatured roles that limit their expression, particularly as regards gender and sexuality.