Screenings – Mon, Apr 30th @ 8:45pm, Wed, May 2nd @ 2:45pm
When a Swedish “power manager” is hired to haul what was once the biggest Lada car factory in the former Soviet Union back into the black, he inherits a backwards business model and a work culture not quite of the 21st century. Filmmaker Petr Horký wryly observes an absurdist tale of modernization at the AvtoVAZ car plant in Tolyatti, the city that capitalism forgot. Once the model of communist efficiency, its rusting machinery and sleepy workers now report to Bo Inge Andersson, the factory’s first foreign boss and first taste of results-oriented management. His no-nonsense plan to scrap 20,000 jobs doesn’t sit well with residents still nostalgic for bygone days of military parades and the company’s old ice swimming club. A perfect microcosm of Russia’s global transformation, the factory demonstrates the human dimension of historical sea change. As Andersson wisely notes of his new home, “People would like to have a revolution, but nothing should change.” Myrocia Watamaniuk
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