In Svetlana Satchkova’s English-language debut The Undead, turning a blind eye is tantamount to complicity in modern-day Russia.
Russian-born Satchkova’s novel follows Maya, an aspiring film-maker who unexpectedly lands funding for a cheesy horror movie. Certain she has nothing original or politically engaging to say, Maya’s project, in which a zombified Lenin wreaks havoc on Moscow, stands out.
Art-house horror films, let alone those directed by women, are scarce in modern Russia. “The horrors of the regime” suffice. Initially a meditation on artistic responsibility and intention, The Undead drops these themes when Maya is suddenly taken in for questioning by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, following an anonymous tip-off about an anti-Russian propaganda film.
Despite Maya’s insistence, it’s made clear that the Russian state determines her film’s intention, not her. Maya’s belief that “if I did nothing wrong, nothing bad would happen to me” is incompatible with a state determined to show “that everyone is a potential target”.
READ MORE
The curtain comes down and Maya’s beloved Moscow, with its trendy cafes and spotless streets, soon reveals itself to be a city in which elections are rigged, and where simply walking past a protest is enough to land you “in a police cell, your anus ripped”. Her hopes of remaining apolitical shatter as the reality becomes impossible to ignore.
Eventually offered a one-year suspended sentence, Maya finds herself directing a state-funded propaganda piece. Her bank account fattens and she’s surprised to find no “moral monsters” among her colleagues, though she is less trusting of the privileges afforded by the Russian state now; cancer patients and the elderly are neglected to accommodate her exorbitant paycheques, and the need for permits through the Ministry of Culture and a reliance on state funding for film projects explains her colleagues’ affability.
“Unhandshakeable” as far as her old friends are concerned, Maya wonders to what extent they would have acted differently in similar circumstances.
The Undead explores an uncomfortable reality, in which opportunities for rebellion are slim and fulfilling aspirations entails escape or collaboration. Here, unassuming citizens are turned into dissidents, and dissidents into state assets. Satchkova’s urgent novel asks whether “integrity’s just a word” or if genuine political decisions can be made between a rock and a hard place.
Colm McKenna is a writer based in Paris, France
