“He’s Not from Our Tribe!”: Jewish and Kabardian Identities in the Post-Soviet Russian Space(s) of Kantemir Balagov’s Closeness (Tesnota, 2017)

MCGINITY-PEEBLES, ADELAIDE

Abstract

Closeness (Tesnota, dir. Kantemir Balagov, 2017), is a striking example of contemporary Russian cinema due to its sustained focus on two groups of ethnic “others” (Jews and Kabardians) living in one of the poorest and most conflict-ridden areas of Russia: Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus. Set in 1998, when interethnic tensions after the First Chechen War remained high, Closeness focuses on a young Jewish girl, Ila, whose relationship with a Kabardian boy clashes with her family’s cultural expectations. These tensions are compounded after Ila’s brother and his fiancée are kidnapped by Islamist terrorists. Throughout Closeness, spatial, ethnic, religious, and gendered marginalities converge sharply: space is fundamental to its discourse of identity and belonging. Thus, through examining the representation of the key spaces in the film (Ila’s home, the synagogue, the gas station, the city of Nalʹchik, and the Caucasus Mountains), this article demonstrates that Closeness wistfully gestures to a civic (rossiiskii) understanding of nationhood. However, as I show, the film’s implicit civic identification comes at the expense of Jewish and Kabardian ethnocultural identities. The film’s discourse therefore resonates with longstanding debates in official discourse over civic and ethnic definitions of Russian nationhood. Furthermore, as Kolstø and Blakkisrud (2017) have shown, ethnic (russkii) definitions appear to be increasingly crowding out civic definitions since Vladimir Putin’s third term as president (2012–2018). Thus, in this context, Closeness can be read as a repudiation of an increasingly ethnonational framing of collective identity. More broadly, the identity discourse explored in Closeness is relevant to ongoing debates in nations around the world, including those in the “West,” in which official discourse on the nation has been framed from a progressively more ethnonational standpoint since the 2010s.

Citation

MCGINITY-PEEBLES, A. (2021). “He’s Not from Our Tribe!”: Jewish and Kabardian Identities in the Post-Soviet Russian Space(s) of Kantemir Balagov’s Closeness (Tesnota, 2017). Slavic and East European Journal, 65(4), 681-700

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 6, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Deposit Date: Nov 24, 2023
• Print ISSN: 0037-6752
• Publisher: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 65
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 6
• Pages: 681-700
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/27598807
• Publisher URL: https://seej.org/issues/65.4.html#am