Film adaptation and cultural politics: the Russian approach to screening literature

The adaptation of works of literature has been a staple part of film production in all countries of the world. Western theories of adaptation have focused on the relationship of the film to the original text, and the vision of the director. Essentially these theories can be reduced to one question: who owns the film version: the author or the director? In Russia, the relationship between authors and director is further complicated by time, as the genre of literary adaptation has much in common with the historical film: both tell us as much about the times in which these films were made, as about the source material. Russian film adaptations of literature have consistently referred to the source text with great respect but also with an eye to their contemporary relevance. The Russian classical and Soviet literary heritage provides a rich repository of cultural values that can be celebrated in any era, but which can also comment on the mores of that era, sometimes to satirical effect. What distinguishes the Russian approach to literary adaptation is its espousal of periodization, wherein a film adaptation may reveal more about the time in which it was produced than develop the actual literary original itself.

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