On the NTV channel, a series of films by the television journalist Andrei Loshak “Russia. Total Eclipse” was released. Immediately after the broadcast of the first episodes, the Internet exploded in a variety of comments, from enthusiastic to outraged. And this alone indicates that the project was successful.
The project "Russia. Total Eclipse" consists of five series: "The Blue Beard from Rublevka", "Trick of Immortality", "Carpet Killers", "Nazi Mutants" and "Telezombi". Many viewers probably did not pay attention to the mention in the announcement of the project that the films were shot in a documentary genre. This is a Russified version of the English term mockumentary, which, in turn, consists of to mock - "mock", "fake" and documentary - "documentary". The name of the genre suggests that these are fake films, banter, mockery.
The first episode that came out had the effect of an exploding bomb. Many people are accustomed to the fact that on television everything is served in an extremely chewed form; in comedy series, they even tell them with laughter behind the scenes when to laugh. And when such a viewer starts watching films of the project “Russia. Total Eclipse”, he starts to get nervous, because he feels that something absurd is happening before his eyes. Understanding the state of the viewer, the author of the film gives him numerous hints that you should not believe everything that is described in the frame. But comments on the Internet show that not everyone understood the prompts; many viewers took the stories told at face value.
According to the author’s plan, after each series on air the NTVshniki program was supposed to start, in which the film would be discussed, answers to questions from the audience sounded. But everything turned out differently - the films lay on the shelf for a long time, the author himself learned from the news about their airing. Having received no explanation and taking the films for real journalistic investigations, the audience did not skimp on the comments. Some vehemently criticized the author, others defended him just as passionately. The management of NTV was quite - the project received a high audience rating.
Why were these films made at all - to make fun of the viewer? Of course not, the author had completely different goals. Much of what is happening on Russian television now resembles the theater of the absurd in itself. And the worst part is that viewers are so used to it that they no longer notice the absurdity of what is happening. You can only get them out of a drowsy state if you bring the absurdity of the situation to the limit that Andrey Loshak made with his films.
