Conclusion

Abstract The Fifth Congress of Soviet Filmmakers represented a cataclysmic moment of change, but also the onset of a serious crisis for the entire film industry. Filmmakers in the studio had only a vague sense of what the new slogans, “glasnost” and “perestroika,” would mean for them. In the summer of 1986, a frustrating period of stop-start reform began: no sooner were structural and managerial changes achieved in the studio than they were rendered obsolete by fresh directives from the top. In 1987 began the process of setting up new “creative units” that, unlike the old ones, now had financial and managerial autonomy. These rapidly developed their own character, with German’s “First and Experimental Film Studio” championing avant-garde aspirations, while Maslennikov’s “Trinity Bridge” and Tregubovich’s “Ladoga” pursued a more market- and audience-oriented approach. Within a few years, however, younger film artists had outgrown the old mentoring tradition—a landmark was the departure of one of the most talented newcomers, Aleksei Balabanov, to run his own production company. From now on, Lenfilm was to act mainly as a facility for outside companies. However, these changes in the management of production were in the end less significant and less damaging than the impact of commercial distribution. Film production never stopped, and indeed, during the early 1990s, encouraged by influxes of private funding, often from money-laundering, it became easier than ever before to make movies. What became increasingly difficult was reaching the public, as cinema owners and distributors turned their sights on foreign-produced movies.