On the specifics of a contemporary film interpretation of village prose: Brothers and Sisters by F.А.Abramov — Two Winters and Three Summers by T.R.Esadze

Abstract

The author focuses on the recent film adaptation of the iconic work of village prose — the

novel tetralogy Brothers and Sisters by Fyodor Abramov. Teimuraz Esadze’s TV series Two

Winters and Three Summers (2014), which was shown on Russia 1, is considered as a part of a

large-scale process that sociologist Boris Dubin has called reconciliation with the Soviet past

(an important symptom of this process was a wave of film adaptations of Soviet classics in the

second half of the 2000–2010s). Insisting that Abramov’s novels are classics of Russian litera

ture, Esadze sought to extract from them, first, relevant formulas of collective identity, and

second, explanatory models capable of shedding light on social processes in late- and post

Soviet society. In the article, the way the director uses the conceptual apparatus and imagina

tive and rhetorical system of village prose is interpreted as an attempt to reanimate the critical

discourse of late-Soviet neopochvennichestvo in new conditions. The article examines the am

bivalent strategy of Esadze’s TV series, on the one hand, oriented toward a precise reproduc

tion of Abramov’s text, and on the other hand, taking into account the narrative and figurative

logic of the TV series, usually addressed to a mass audience. The article concludes that such

a strategy has a low analytical and reflexive potential, depending on the generalized media

image of a Russian village, internalized through literary, film- and television representations,

collective (family) or personal memories.

Keywords:

Fyodor Abramov, Teimuraz Esadze, village prose, TV serials, film adaptation