Film Screening: 'Mermaid' (dir. Anna Melikyan, 2007)

Loosely based on The Little Mermaid, this film tells the story of Alisa, a young girl who has discovered that she has a magical power to grant any wish she desires. After wishing to move to Moscow, her seaside home burns down, forcing her mother to obey Alisa’s desires. In the city, she falls in love with Sasha, a conman who sells people property on the Moon, Venus and Mars. The couple embark on a fairytale-like three-day adventure, with Sasha repeating his erratic behavior every day, introducing Alisa to the chaotic monotony of capitalist Russia.

"Mermaid" represents an attempt to interpretively stabilize an uninterpretable post-Soviet Russia. However, this is not a fairytale with a happy ending. If the earlier films in this series aim include a utopian desire for reimagination and reinvention, it is difficult to find such positive readings in Melikyan’s lively, exciting, but nonetheless incredibly dark vision of capitalism heading toward disaster.

Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (OWNER)

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