BBC archive manager Phil Goodwin found 2,000 unmarked tapes in a basement: every major event shot by the Moscow bureau between 1985 and 1999. Adam Curtis cut the 26,000 minutes down to seven hour-long episodes, stripped out his trademark voice-over and let the images speak through captions only. The result starts with Gorbachev’s perestroika and ends with Vladimir Putin being chosen by oligarchs to protect their new wealth, moving from queues for potatoes to tanks shelling the White House in 1993 and Chechen civilians fleeing Grozny.
Each chapter is built from daily-life fragments, a factory worker yawning at the ZiL car plant, kids break-dancing in a concrete courtyard, an old woman counting kopecks for bread while a shiny new McDonald’s opens across the square. The absence of commentary intensifies the absurdity: a liberal politician promises democracy as soldiers sell their medals for food, and bankers toast the free market while pensioners dig for mushrooms outside Moscow.
Critics praised the restraint. The Guardian awarded five stars, the Financial Times called it an “exceptional” Curtis work, and the series won Best Specialist Factual at the 2023 BAFTAs. Viewers outside Britain discovered it through YouTube rips, turning grainy clips of Boris Yeltsin dancing into viral memes that miss the darkness pressing in on every side.
Production Details
BBC iPlayer / 1 Season / 7 Episodes / 2022
Producer(s): Sandra Gorel
Main Cast
