Summary
Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in early 1920s Perm, *Semya Gribushinykh* unfolds as a panoramic tableau of Soviet social metamorphosis, filtered through the intimate lens of the Gribushin household. The patriarch, Grigory Gribushin, a towering merchant whose warehouses dominate the city’s riverfront, clings to the vestiges of pre‑revolutionary capitalism while his children—each a personification of divergent ideological currents—navigate the shifting sands of collective identity. His eldest son, Alexei, a charismatic but disillusioned factory foreman, wrestles with the paradox of laboring under a regime that simultaneously promises emancipation and imposes bureaucratic strictures. Meanwhile, the matriarch, Elena, oscillates between nostalgic reverence for aristocratic decor and pragmatic adaptation, orchestrating clandestine charitable gatherings that blur the line between patronage and propaganda. The narrative interlaces the Gribushins’ domestic rituals—lavish banquets, heated debates over Lenin’s latest decrees, and whispered confidences in the dimly lit attic—with the quotidian struggles of a modest worker, Pavel Ivanov, whose modest apartment becomes a crucible for socialist fervor. Pavel’s ascent from a disenchanted laborer to a fervent organizer mirrors the broader societal oscillation between hope and disillusionment. As the NEP’s liberalization wanes, the Gribushins confront an inexorable reckoning: the merchant class’s diminishing relevance, the erosion of familial cohesion, and the inexorable march toward collectivization. The film culminates in a poignant tableau where the Gribushin estate, once a symbol of opulent autonomy, is repurposed as a communal hall, its gilded chandeliers dimmed beneath the austere glow of a sea‑blue lantern, embodying the inexorable synthesis of personal legacy and collective destiny.
Synopsis
The film presents a broad picture of social life through the prism of the family life of the largest Perm merchant Gribushin and an ordinary worker during the NEP period.
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