Dinara Asanova

Dinara Asanova’s first film was Rudolfio. The film is an adaption of the 1965 novel Rudolfio by Valentin Rasputin. The main topics of the film are adolescence, young female sexuality, shame and the age of consent. It is about a ninth grade girl named Io who falls in love with Rudolfio, an older married man. Although the film focuses on the topic of female sexuality, many parts of the book that illustrate Io’s sexuality and her lust for Rudolfio were not incorporated to avoid issues with the censors.[5] During the era of the Soviet Union, films were looked at rigorously by Soviet censors to ensure that films’ subject matter fit with Soviet convictions. After the film was analyzed by the censors, it had to be remade before its official release. Several scenes were removed such as a scene of Io and Rodolfio walking by the sea together. The censors wanted to ensure the message that Io and Rudolfio could not be together was clear. Due to troubles with censors, Asanova was not able to obtain a directorial job for five years. Her period away from film-making ended when she started working for Lenfilm.[6]

Woodpeckers Don't Get Headaches (Ne bolit golova u dyatla) was Dinara Asanova’s first feature film. It was the first film she made when she began working at Lenfilm Studio in Leningrad and it resulted in her gaining a name for herself in Soviet Cinema. It also established the style and common narrative themes depicted in all of Asanova’s films.[1] The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches depicts a young aspiring drummer who falls in love with a girl during a summer holiday.[7] It is about the difficulties of first love and life long choices of youngsters.[8]

Boys (Patsany) was Dinara’s Asanova’s most commercially successful film. It was made near the end of her career while she worked at Lenfilm Studio and continued the trend of troubled adolescence as the main subject of Asanova’s films.[1] It is about a graduate student who mentors and befriends a group of delinquent and criminal boys at a camp.[7] The film was highly acclaimed upon its release and it won Asanova a USSR State Prize.[1]

Dinara Asanova’s films often depict people’s and youths’ struggles in everyday life. Her most notable films such as Rudolfio, The Woodpecker Doesn’t Get Headaches and Tough Kids deal with troubled adolescence and the difficult shift from childhood to adulthood. They also focus on personal issues, the difficulties of Soviet life and questions related to the human predicament. Asanova is considered a member of the “Leningrad School” of filmmakers. This was a group of filmmakers known for their similar film form. The other key members were Vitaly Melnikov, Alexei German, Gleb Panfilov and Ilya Averbahk. Their films were characterized as realistic, ambiguous and incorporated critiques on everyday and Soviet society.[8]

Dinara Asanova’s film style can be described as realistic, documentary style and an unadorned portrayal of the world. She incorporated realism within her work to contribute to her films’ narratives which often focused on the individual and a realistic portrayal of common life.[8] Asanova is known for incorporating improvisation in her films in the form of dialogue and plot to add to her films’ gritty and realistic feel. Also, Asanova mixed both known and unknown actors in her films. The young actors were often unknown and featured for the first time.[1]

The form of Dinara Asanova’s films and the films of the other directors within the “Leningrad School” represent the changing views and use of the arts during the years of the Soviet Union known as Khrushchev’s Thaw.[8] The Thaw took place during Khrushchev’s presidential term in the 50s and 60s. It was a period of change from Stalin’s cultural politics and strict censorship to allowing writers, artists and filmmakers to criticize Soviet social problems and focus on individual experiences rather than only the collective. The effects of the Thaw continued during the later part of the Soviet Union era after Khrushchev's term ended.[9] Asanova is a prominent filmmaker that represents the artists during this period. She was often outspoken on her critiques of Soviet society, particularly on issues of sexuality, gender and everyday Soviet life.[5] These critiques can be found in all her films and are often depicted through her young and teenage characters. Although censorship was not as stringent during and after the period of the Thaw, Asanova was strategic at depicting these critiques in her films as to avoid them from being shelved.[8]