Growing Up on Russian Gangster Movies
‘Your father wasn’t a criminal, but he really wanted to be one.’
If you watch enough American TV, it’s easy to assume that most families follow the same old routine. They go to soccer games together, travel, go on hikes, picnics, play catch, or celebrate kids’ birthdays in the green backyard by the pool, parents sipping cold Coronas and spreading gossip about neighbours, hotdogs steaming on a BBQ.
One of the guys is always fat, always named Bob, and always wears a Hawaiian shirt with a ketchup stain on the chest. The conversation always goes like this:
“Dude, last night’s game was awesome!”
“I know, right? Honey, would you get us more chips? And there’s more beer in the cooler!”
In my family, we never did any of those things. There were no picnics, no BBQs, no park hikes — at least not while we lived in Moscow, where it snows nine months out of twelve, and the winters are dark and depressing.
My father’s idea of quality time with his family was watching TV. And not just any TV, but films about Russian criminals in the 1990s.
These were movies filled with violence, crime, theft, bribery, and background music that stays with you forever, making the hairs on your arms stand straight every…
