Being symptomatic of my generation and its need to react to EVERYTHING I am prone to this level of overthinking, so bear with me...
At first I was pretty
sure the BBC were simply screening Lord of the Rings again or possibly the
first installment of Peter Jackson’s new Hobbit trilogy. There was a lonely mountain,
windswept and dangerous; an epic voiceover spouting gravelly nonsense; a train
of brave adventurers armed to the teeth with...skis?
*jaw drop*
“Nature, who will conquer it?”
“The Winter Olympics 07/02/14”
Well, well , well, I thought, here we go again...
What does the BBC’s Sochi
Winter Olympics Promo tell us about our views on Russia? Firstly how can we be sure that this isn’t the promo they’d have used for any Winter Olympics? To
be honest, we can’t be. A quick re-watch of the Vancouver 2010 BBC promo (here) shows
that this older promo would have been equally suitable for Russia if it wasn’t for the
depiction of North American native peoples in the opening frames of animation. So why am I making a
fuss? I’m not. I simply want to make some interesting observations that come
out of decoding a trailer pertaining to one of my favourite subjects. So cool
it.
Let’s start with the
slogan that the BBC is giving the games – “Nature, who will conquer it?” Few
would be surprised at the link being made between Russia and the verb “conquer.” The West has always had the sense of Russia as an invading power and this permeates the way we relate to every facet of Russian culture. Maybe this is unfair but if you cheekily pull apart Vladimir Putin’s full name to reveal its linguistic
components you end up with something like “World Ruler, son of World Ruler” (although the researcher inside of me would also have me point
out the dual meaning of ‘mir’ as either ‘world’ or ‘peace’ which sort of ruins the anecdote...)
Anyway, Russia conquering
mountains is a particularly hot topic at the moment with the reemerging security
threats to the Sochi games. Both Russian society and the world in general have recently experienced a dreadful reminder of the fragility of the Caucasian mountainous region through the bombings that recently claimed lives in Volgograd. Russia’s 18th century, imperial expansions into the very mountains that the games are being held near is the root cause for the religious and nationalist conflict
in the Caucasus area. So are the BBC covertly reminding us of this? Probably not. In fact, I think that the reference to
conquering owes more to the mythic, literary interpretation of the
Russian character that we constantly recycle in the West - the idea of a harsh and merciless
nation whose people are all grizzled warriors travelling great distances and
accomplishing great feats with terrible sacrifice. We don't often see it or hear it but Russia can be cute, tender and silly - see Cheburashka (picture 2), a soviet cartoon character, if you don't believe me. Could any of this have made the promo?
 |
| (1) Sochi - a winter wonderland (*) |
Another obvious reference point in the video is the weather and climate of Russia. Here we fall into a trap again - not all of Russia is a cold, windswept wasteland. In fact Sochi is the polar opposite of the kind of terrain featured on screen. Instead of resembling The Wall from Game of Thrones the city itself more closely resembles a sunny, sea resort - less of a Siberia and more of a scuzzy, Russian Miami. Let's just think about this in isolation for a second. Russia has an abundance of snow and ice, miles of mountainous terrain, existing infrastructure from previous winter sports events and basically ideal conditions for hosting The Winter Olympics anywhere other than on its Black Sea coast. Yet it still chooses to put them, at great cost, in one of the hottest parts of the country. Here the promo really misses a trick - what's more Russian than a project that sounds as impossible than this? These are the people who built a railway across Siberia! These are the people who sent dogs and monkeys into space! Surely a promo playing off the amazing ambitions and soaring contradictions of Russia would have been a far more interesting watch?
Perhaps the most flattering observation that can be made is the fact that the voiceover speaks in rhyme. Here allusions to Russia's rich literary contributions are woven into the fabric of the games and this makes Russian literature fanatics like me really happy. Although the tone of the poem is pure Tolkien and Tennyson it is pleasing that Russia and epic works of fiction seem to go together in a Western mindset.
| (2) Cheburashka - the fluffy underbelly of Russia |
Conclusion? Well it's quite a good promo for building hype but one that shows aged stereoptypes about Russia and Russians. What I would have liked to have seen is something that plays off the clever irony of Winter Olympics in a sub-tropical climate. It would also have been nice to have seen some covert LGBT message although this is waaaay too much for the neutral BBC to be able to stretch to and perhaps that is a good thing.
(1) Image of Sochi taken under creative commons via google images.
(2) Image of Cheburashka taken under creative commons via google images.
(2) Image of Cheburashka taken under creative commons via google images.
