Artists of Perestroika

1988/89, Perestroika: In Amsterdam the alternative agency “Circ” organises encounters between Russian and Dutch rock, wave, ska and punk musicians, as well as theatre groups and Gesamtkunstwerk artists. Flashbacks, Super 8 takes and memories that, for everyone involved, were associated with a feeling of freedom, euphoria and also, it must be said, nonsense. Not to mention a great desire to overcome the boundaries between East and West. A feeling that has long since evaporated; not only in Russia. A look back at small freedoms and high hopes, at the fall of the Berlin Wall and lots of good music, and at the desire to engage with one another, be it in joint concerts or Jimmy Carter's fits of laughter during a Yeltsin speech. Director Masha Novikova left the Soviet Union in 1988 and has lived in the Netherlands ever since. She titled the last chapter of her documentary, the illusion-free conclusion of this pop art fairy tale, “And nothing turned out” ...