In the west, nothing is new. Neither does the East. Such is the red thread of this young and dynamic documentary of thirty minutes, which explores, between laughter and sighs, clichés and stereotypes of Western Europeans concerning those of the East, and vice versa.
German-Belarusian blogger KaciaBerlin, German-Polish journalists Dawid Romanowski and Russian Masha Borzunova, German writer and philosopher Ani Menua and a former prostitute open the debate. “We tend to romanticize poverty,” Kacia testifies, pointing to TikTok, where the trend gopnik – “scum”, in Russian – prefabricated buildings in drab colors is talking about her: “The more depressing, the better it works . »
The West is often portrayed as a “privileged”, “arrogant”, “hypocritical”, “know-it-all” people. For Dawid Romanowski, “there is no barbarism or superiority, but rather a rich center and a poor periphery”.
In the East, Russian propaganda feeds these clichés and clichés. After Vladimir Putin announced in his address to the nation on February 21 that he would “carefully, (…) step by step, methodically” continue his “special military operation” in Ukraine, Kacia’s words take meaning: “In Russia, when you turn off the TV, the war is over, but in Ukraine, there is no break. »
Negative view of the West
For Masha Borzunova, the Russian people think that only their age-old traditions can save them, since they are exposed without filter to “fake news” such as “the opening of a zoophilic brothel took place in Denmark”, “the pedophilia is seen [in the West] as a norm” or “priests are obliged to bless same-sex marriages”… Many of Putin’s supporters are found among Westerners who have never set foot in Russia but claim a “Dostoyevsky aesthetic”, says another speaker, the young Russian YouTuber Daniil Orain.
The other Eastern European countries also have a negative view of the West, from which they are constantly subjected to received ideas. “The East is often seen in an exotic way, drunk people sitting on the ground dancing with bears… It’s like we’re less cultured and less civilized,” said Gosha Bergal, a model, photographer and actor in Moscow.
Ani Menua reveals that the words that come up directly after “eastern woman” on Google search are “buy”, “wedding”, “meet” and “date”. She counts three types of clichés about them, seen from the West: the prostitute, the cheap cleaning lady and the “James Bond girl”.
A former Ukrainian sex worker says her Western clients exuded boredom and loneliness. She recalls the time when one of them asked her to “play a little 8-year-old girl opposite a big man” – a memory that is extremely painful to her. She warns: the “promised land” image in the West is an illusion. In France, she points out, foreigners are not really included.
