Pokrovskiye Vorota

11.27.09

Against his own free will
Pokrovskiye Vorota (0)
The first time I watched Pokrov Gate, maybe a year ago or so, I thought it was just entertainment -- a movie-length situation comedy. After all, while it isn't hard to imagine that a communal apartment would be a rich source of material, it's not easy to imagine this situation in real life. (BTW, there are spoilers here. You have been warned.) Margarita Khobotova dumped her absent-minded, klutzy husband for another guy who was home when her husband wasn't -- dumped a brainy, literary guy for a brawny worker. It's not too hard to imagine opportunities ...
07.19.09

Kommunalki
Pokrovskiye Vorota, Vor (2)
Best find of the month: "Communal Living in Russia: A Virtual Museum of Soviet Everyday Life." I learned about it at English Russia. There are video clips of Ilya, who no longer lives in a kommunalka, but who takes his two young children back to see where he once lived. The English voice-over is good in that it doesn't completely obliterate the Russian speaking. Sometimes it follows the Russian, and sometimes precedes it. Very good for language learning. There are also bilingual, side-by-side transcripts in Russian and in English translation. There is also a page ...

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