Stereotypes & the airport scene


I was quite annoyed by the (most of the times not so funny) jokes in the movie that stereotype Ukrain as a verry poor country and Ukrainians as either urban people who are centred towards America, but who dont know too much about it in an innocent way, or rural dum imbred people with crooked theath, or as someone who never has been in a car and doesnt know the war is over.

But i'm not from Ukrain and i don't know what it was like there before the civil war. Maby it could be like that there, but i think the movie doesnt wants to portray Ukrain as it is. I think it wants to create an unique atmosphere, but does this at the expense of Ukrain.

Then at the end of the movie they showed an airport scene with all the (in my opinion negative) stereotypes there working airport jobs there. And i was a bit confused, altough the movie was a bit absured it never hinted that the images where the interpretation of the main caracter, this would explain the stereotyping. That this was not the case was conformed for me by the last grave scene where Alex still is a wanna be American hip hop rapper and the dog is still named after an American singer. So i guess the airport scene was there to hint that we shouldnt take the stereotypes to serious and that the movie isnt portraying ukrain as it is. Even if that is so i still found the stereotyping distastefull and i think movies like this are one of the reasons why westerns have a distorted view of the world. It could be worse and it is not the intention of the movie, but a lot of people will probably connect the movie to their knowlegde of the real Ukrain.

In my opinion the movie would be way better of if the country was an imagianative country or if it was clear during the movie that the images where the intrepretation of the countrie trough the world of the observer. The not so present tension of the story was centred around the atmosphere of the country that they tried to create with the stereotypes. So for me the movie had no tension since the main caracter was an pasive observer that you weren't invested in and the plot itself was verry thin. So for me the movie was a boring one that despite it's good intentions is even quite damaging for the viewer. But as i say i was a bit suprised by the airport scene so i'm wondering what your opinions are about this and what the impression of Ukrain is for the people who have been there and took an effort to see it.

I implore you to forgive my writing of English, as i'm not so premium with it.

reply

Not only are you not very premium [as you put it]in your English.You seem to be not very premium in your reasoning.I am afraid that your post made little, or no sense to me.Just what are you complaining about? I saw nothing belittling of the people or the countryside. I found it very sympathetic indeed.I found it all quite gorgeous.A wonderful film indeed.

reply