Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Watching Russian propaganda

I've been watching some Russian propaganda tonight- mainly because a friend of mine, an actor, sent me some links to it. Martin plays a cynical journalist for the BBC. If you don't speak Russian, you won't get much of it - although there are some parts in English.

The basic plot: An entomologist - born in Russia, raised in the US, travels to South Ossetia, just in time for the 2008 war to start. He's there to collect a rare butterfly - but his scientific mission is forgotten when the bullets start flying and the bombs start falling. Because he and his Russian assistant - a journalist - are there at the very beginning, they have proof that the Georgians started the war. But the Western Media doesn't want to hear their opinions or view the evidence. As my friend's character cynically tells them - it's a media war - and the news media collectively represent one of the most important weapons of war.

It was nice listening to Russian, and interesting to see Channel One's propaganda. It's not a very subtle piece. The Americans are at best clueless. Even the American "hero" is a ditz, accidentally inhaling a bug at one point. The Russian woman, at the other hand, is attractive, brave, gutsy, and honest.

The Georgians are brutal thugs who kill unarmed civilians.

The Russian are honorable soldiers, defending neighbors in need.

The South Ossetians are beleaguered and out-gunned.

I'm sure my friend got paid well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Too funny. What country doesn’t make movies portraying their soldiers as good guys (read handsome, brave & good shoots) and the other side as bad (read ugly, stupid, vicious & bad shoots)? To be fair, BBC eventually conceded that their original coverage of the war was one-sided at beast. And YouTube footage of Misha Saakashvili chewing on his tie… priceless.