Comic Representation of the Tragic Past in Alexey Krasovsky’s Film Feast

Abstract

The article discusses the film Feast directed by Alexey Krasovsky (2018). The analysis focuses on the use of the comic genre to portray the tragic events of the Siege of Leningrad. It is shown that the director of Feast intentionally chose such comically charged, ’non-realistic’ poetics to satisfy the audience’s demand for alternative ways of depicting war, different from those employed by Russian mainstream cinema. For the director, comedy becomes an attempt to break the stereotypical depictions of war-related events in Russian cinema. By choosing an unconventional genre, Feast challenges the viewers to form their own opinions about history and art. The semantics of Feast is not limited to its underlying political message but produces a deeper aesthetic message about the fundamental impossibility of an unbiased and truthful commentary on war: whatever we try, such commentary would always remain a construct geared towards the needs, worldviews or demands of certain audiences.