The duality of Russia’s domestic and international cultural narratives: a cinematic analysis of Russian films in European perception (2021-2023)

Abstract

This article examines the dichotomy between Russia’s domestic cultural narrative and its international cultural diplomacy as conveyed through russian films released between 2021 and 2023, focusing on «The Last Frontier» («Последний рубеж», 2020) and «No Looking Back» («Без оглядки назад», 2021) for their patriotic messaging aimed at domestic audiences, «Dear Comrades!» («Дорогие товарищи!», 2020) and «Captain Volkonogov Escaped» («Капитан Волконогов бежал», 2021) for their more introspective narratives presented to international viewers. In this paper we will try to examine how these films help support the continuity of Russia in world culture, and build up unity from within. Drawing on Stuart Hall audience reception theories encoding/decoding model and J. Nye's concept of soft power, the paper explores how europeans read these films against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions. It was that self-critical impulse of russian culture as an internal corrective to the euphemisms, misplaced heroism and nostalgias it indulges in this day; a balance with global projection not yet quite lost.