The series "Garden Ring". Part 1. Childhood traumas
It's amazing that director Alexei Smirnov and cameraman Sergei Medvedev were only 23 and 21 years old at the time of filming, respectively. It's amazing - because they managed to show the adult world so accurately. Through the eyes of the younger generation. It is not for nothing that Yuri Burlan at the training "System-Vector Psychology" says that young people today are a completely different kind of people, whose mental volume is many times greater than the capabilities of the previous generation. They are able to see, understand what is happening, and draw their own conclusions. Such are the young heroes of the film, who see everything, understand everything and therefore … do not want anything in life …
In 2018, an informal series "Garden Ring" was shown on Channel One. Unformatted because we are used to seeing a glamorous and happy life on the country's leading channel. This film is strikingly different.
Behind a beautiful picture of the life of wealthy families living inside the Garden Ring of Moscow, full of luxury and happy smiles, demonstratively displayed on Instagram, we see an abyss of lies, dislike and despair. And yet this is not another saga from the category of "the rich also cry." The film is about all of us, about hatred and corruption devouring our society. About the children we are losing as a generation.
However, the authors are not blaming. They show the reasons that led us to total soullessness. The genre of the picture is a psychological detective drama. The scriptwriter Anna Kozlova, whose favorite writer is Dostoevsky, helped to psychoanalyze not only the heroes of the film, but also all the viewers of Channel One.
It's amazing that director Alexei Smirnov and cameraman Sergei Medvedev were only 23 and 21 years old at the time of filming, respectively. Surprising - because they managed to show the adult world so accurately. Through the eyes of the younger generation. It is not for nothing that Yuri Burlan, at the training "System-Vector Psychology", says that young people today are a completely different kind of people, whose mental volume is many times greater than the capabilities of the previous generation. They are able to see, understand what is happening, and draw their own conclusions. Such are the young heroes of the film who see everything, understand everything and therefore … do not want anything in life.
All the scum and all the victims
"We had a bad start, but you and I are not bad, because we didn't want it to end this way."
A tragedy occurs in the wealthy Moscow Smolin family - 18-year-old son Ilya disappears. Prior to that, the prosperous world of the owner of the pharmaceutical business Andrei and the consulting psychotherapist Vera collapses in an instant. And the trouble does not unite them in their search for a son, but reveals the terrible ulcers of their long life together. It turns out that all these years Andrei, practically in front of his wife, cheated on her with her sister Anna. And Ilya led some kind of double life, about which his mother knew nothing. He threw the University of Economics, where she carefully "thrust" him.
The family of their friends - psychiatrist Boris Kaufman, his wife Katya and daughter Sasha - are also drawn into the funnel of the crumbling world. It turns out that Boris also cheated on his wife with his patient Lida Bruskova. And the daughter has long been a victim of drug addiction.
The mother of the sisters, Rita, who came from America with her young lover Potap, adds fuel to the fire of daily flaring up scandals. Interrogations with an investigator, clarification of the circumstances of the tragedy contribute to the reanimation of the past. The mother recalls their life, what led their family to collapse. Constantly humiliates "psychopathic daughters" and their men, hiding behind concern for their future. But this only increases the severity of experiences.
And yet the heroes are ambiguous. Sometimes they are disgusting. And sometimes they cause sympathy, because you understand that they are just victims of childhood traumas, which develop into a social psychopathology of hatred in society.
The audience complains that there is a lot of filth, vulgarity, swearing in the film. But how could it be otherwise when people are frustrated? Do we not see and hear all this every day in the world around us? This film is just a reflection of reality.
Weak or Strong?
“It lacks some kind of inner core. She does not know how to see this life as it is”.
Most of all, Vera Smolin is sympathetic, whom everyone accuses of infantilism, an attempt to hide from reality and shift responsibility to other people. However, despite the refinement of her former life, she tries to remain human.
Her visual vector, which gives a person a high sensitivity, empathy and the desire to help those who feel bad, pushes her to charity work. She organizes a shelter for women suffering from domestic violence. Of course, her psychotherapeutic practice focuses on wealthy women whose husbands bought diamonds of the wrong size, or on the study of the effect of feng shui wallpaper color on the psyche. But still, the growth of awareness and independence in decision-making throughout this story evokes respect.
The mother blames Vera for the lack of a rod. Visually, Vera Mikhailovna, of course, is subtle, intelligent, wants to see only good in people. This is perceived by others as weakness. But suffering hardens her. Only she demonstrates that core of understanding and forgiveness of people in spite of everything that others do not have.
It is she who unravels the complex tangle of relationships and finds Ilya. She sympathizes with him, because she sees that it was they, the parents themselves, who made him so. “A person cannot meet the expectations of others” - her conclusion.
Yes, she should have acted differently - to bring him to justice, but she does not. And Vera realizes with what burden she will now have to live. Therefore, her gaze at the end of the film is confused, asking "How to live further?" - completely negates the expected happy ending.
An ambiguous image, but so vital and recognizable!
The habit of suffering
"Suffering needs a source, and the victim of violence subconsciously attracts the one who will mock her - morally and physically."
At the very beginning of the film, Vera, talking about the victims of domestic violence, utters this phrase, which is also true for her sister Anna - a beautiful, spectacular, bright woman, but deeply unhappy in her personal life.
The optic cutaneous ligament of vectors, which Anna has, sets a special scenario for her life. This is the life of a hunter, realization on a par with men. Anya, unlike Vera, is trying to build a career by holding the position of financial director at Andrey's firm. But the underdevelopment of her emotional potential does not allow her to achieve success in anything - neither in work, nor in relationships. She behaves like a hysterical, manipulative, psychopathic. Addicted to alcohol and smoking, use drugs and seek punishment. And this is again a consequence of childhood trauma.
Anya was an unwanted child from an unknown father. Mother constantly humiliated her, considering her insignificant. At the age of 14, the girl entered into sexual relations with her sister's husband and all these years lived, hiding her secret lover from her, but telling her sister all the details of their intimate life. What a sophisticated mockery of yourself!
From childhood, she seemed to have absorbed this desire to be unhappy. How easily a person with a skin vector absorbs and adapts, builds a scenario of failure into his life. Moreover, Anya is a natural masochist: she will burn her hand with a butt, then she will scratch her face herself.
The cataclysms that shook their family push Anya to improve - she wants new, honest relationships, is expecting a baby. Mother discourages her: “You are a psychopath with a bunch of addictions. You will understand that there is no place for any child here."
She says that education is not doing what it needs. That girls from an early age need to be taken to abortion clinics and hospitals and show how scary it is when a child appears at the wrong time, unwanted. "At 20 years old, not understanding anything either in men or in life, you find yourself pregnant with a child that nobody needs." She fully felt what it was like!
But Anna clings to this child like her last chance. Unfortunately, Mom is partly right. Anya wants to change, but she hardly knows how. She again chooses a man with a bunch of psychological problems - jealous, prone to violence - Artyom, Andrey's friend. And again he lies, manipulates, arranging ostentatious tantrums.
She tells him: “I want you to love me. I want someone to love me. But, unfortunately, he does not understand the most important thing - to be loved, you must love yourself. And she doesn't know how.
Men
“You can afford a man only when all is well. And when everything is bad, he is not just useless, he turns into an object of danger."
Against the background of strong women - Vera, Rita - men turn out to be a weak link in the film. Andrey is always screaming, spreading his hands, not holding back his sexual impulses. He then cries, then falls into apathy, then dreams of leaving for Goa, in order to forget there and find peace. He is not able to overcome the circumstances that have befallen him - the loss of his son, the break with his wife and mistress, financial problems associated with declaring him bankrupt.
Possessing the anal and cutaneous vectors, he could be a tough businessman. However, the whole fortress of Andrey is on feet of clay, because it is based on undeveloped properties of the skin vector, which do not allow doing business honestly. Bribes, dark machinations through connections, acquaintances with influential people - these are his tools. And the licentiousness of feelings (from underdevelopment of the visual vector) leads to frequent tantrums and attempts to solve problems with screaming and emotional pressure.
Against his background, friend Artem, also a businessman, seems to be an example of honesty and decency, which does not prevent him from squeezing a friend's business at an opportunity, pocketing his dacha, apartment and money. It is a sin not to take what itself comes into your hands. This is a business - nothing personal.
In relations with Anna, Artyom is no better - a sense of ownership, wild jealousy, lack of trust, tyranny. He can hardly restrain himself when Anya is unable to meet his requirements. What a sense of security and safety that a woman needs so much! Anna is already terrified of him.
Boris Kaufman, who cheated on his wife Katya with a crazy patient, also behaves strangely. It would seem a psychiatrist, an expert on human souls, but completely loses control over himself when it comes to Lida. He is ready to leave his loved ones for her sake, but he realizes that he is not needed, she is tired of her. And in the collapse of the family, trampled and humiliated, he comes to blame Vera, who told about Boris's betrayal during interrogation: "You destroyed my family!"
What's going on with men? Why can't you rely on them, feel a strong shoulder and support? Perhaps it's about women too. The woman has become too self-sufficient, too strong. In the words of Rita - "You can afford a man only when all is well." Like it's a pet to take care of …
Man is created to give. To give to his woman is his deepest desire. And if a woman does not take, does not want, does not receive pleasure from the gifts of a man - not feignedly selfishly, but sincerely, with love and gratitude for the care and protection - does he not feel unnecessary? Doesn't his life become meaningless?
Manipulation, invented, overblown women's needs and a lack of genuine interest and love on the part of a woman - that's where the root of men's frustrations.
Read about why the children of wealthy parents do not want to live in the next part.
