Besides a three-word sentence in English, this week’s short is completely in Russian. Even without subtitles, the intensity of “Mr. Freeman” is gripping enough to draw more than a few views from many who don’t understand the language at all. Although, I’m quite sure that those of us who aren’t bilingual are missing out on some great dialog. [Note: Reader Irene Goncharova has provided an English translation in the comments.]
I think I have to translate it into English and provide the text below. It’s important to understand what it’s all about. It’s a very tough criticism.
Here the translation goes:
“Mr. Freeman” is a long series by an anonymous artist. Future installments
harshly criticize the current Russian administration and Russian society in
general.
Mr. Freeman begins by telling us he is ‘in the epicenter of all events, and
he is himself an event because he has created all this, he has “subdued it
and will put that damned world on fire.”
“I exist in reality, I think independently and I’m fully free of all
stereotypes [breaks the TV-set]. My world is the world of the unlimited
possibilities [he looks like Saint-Exupery’s Little Prince watering a rose]…
for me the words inspired by governments don’t exist [he erases Russian
profanity in a mirror], nor does ‘the Zombie Box’ [idiot box] or your damned
Internet. Here I’m real.
You say I am not. Can you prove this? No? So, it comes I AM, and you are not
[closes the curtain]. I always have something to tell. And what can I tell
you? Think hard… [in a high pitched female voice] ‘Please, dress the boys’ –
[in a lower male voice]: ‘Oh, dear I need to go to toilet’… And you text
your mistress or, pardon me, masturbate. Your life is a complete lie—porno,
routine, Internet addiction, and cell phone slavery. Am I not right? [cell
phone calling. He vomits]. Please tell me, did you ever do anything that
nobody did before? [snatches one figure off the row of clones]. No. And you
never will. Because all that is outside your comfort zone. You packed it in
like a polypropylene bag. You are a piece of meat pressed between routine
and work [put himself into the meat grinder]. Am I not right? Am I mistaken?
Can you present your cell phone to anyone you meet on the street? Can you
format your computer’s hard disc? Sucks? You know why you will not do this?
Because for you it would be equal to a suicide. You are nothing without it.
You do not exist without it. Did you ever do anything independently? Have
you ever followed your own decisions without waiting for the command: JUST
DO IT!
So, I’m real, and you are just a fantasy. That’s why you have not been drawn
yet. And you will have to do your best and work hard to confirm the
opposite, to substantiate that you do exist and state that you’re alive. And
what is most important: this isn’t a game, not at all [presses the button].”