Originally published on FilmInquiry.com
Like life, rock music finds a way. Even in 1980s Leningrad, an underground scene finds a way to keep the sound alive. Leto, from director Kirill Serebrennikov is a tribute to these early years of Russian rock. Shot in gorgeous black and white, it takes place in the years ahead of Gorbachev’s Perestroik.
Mike (Roma Zver) and his wife Natasha (Irina Starshenbaum) meet a young musician named Viktor Tsoi (Teo Yoo). When Mike takes Viktor under his wing and helps the now iconic musician break through onto the scene. Mike also happens to notice that Viktor and Natasha have a chemistry and have caught each other’s eye. Of course, a love triangle ensues and interplays with scenes of the budding musicians.
The film is loosely based on true events, but doesn’t play like a biopic in the sense of Bohemian Rhapsody or Walk The Line. Instead, it feels more like a mood piece that paints the feeling of the time with a loose narrative. It blends fact and fiction together to create a feeling of discovery and coming of age with the backdrop of communism behind it. The rock numbers bring classic Western songs to life with new meaning based on the setting they’re being played in.
Leto is most effective when it leaves reality and forgets trying to tell a cohesive story. Musical numbers of Western songs bring this most to life. They depict what it’s like to bring not just the rock sound, but the rock attitude to the communist world. While the lack of a narrative isn’t for everyone, Leto does a brilliant job showing the seemingly contradicting worlds of rock and roll and the Soviet Union together.
Less Of A Narrative, More Of An Ambiance
To watch Leto isn’t as much to understand the story and rise to fame of one of the biggest figures in the rise of Soviet rock as it it to understand the scene and circumstances around it. It’s more about a feeling. From the cold black and white picture (although a few pops of color do sneak their way in) to the rotoscoped animations during Western rock scenes.
The film is more about understanding the limits on rock and roll in the Soviet Union than it is the love triangle between Mike, Viktor and Natasha. Everything about Leto feels used in moderation. It constantly keeps you on your toes, not sure what to expect next. And perhaps that’s what makes the film so poignant. In a time and place where everything was supposed to be controlled and orderly, rock is what keeps you on your toes.
Soviet Rock Seems Like A Contradiction Because It Is
Rock and roll by nature is defiant. It doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules; rather it forges its own path. Yet, in the Soviet Union, that of course is not the case. Lyrics seem toned down, likely because they need to be approved before a band is allowed to play in the rock club. Real performances are infinitely tamer than imagined ones.
Leto finds a balance between the reality of early rock under a communist regime and the fantasy rockers imagined. Not only do they sneak in Western albums in reality, they imagine themselves rocking out and rebelling against the machine. And as the film never even has a fourth wall, we’re always told these sequences never really happened.
A Feeling Without A Story
Leto is a compelling watch, but certainly not essential to the laundry list of rock and roll films from around the world. Somehow, it works without much of a story. By ignoring any sort of fourth wall, Serebrennikov (who spent 20 months under house arrest) is able to show us the desires and attitudes of early Soviet rockers while they’re stuck in a restricted reality. Perhaps, such a rebellious force as rock and roll in such a locked down society is interesting enough to make the film work, but the unique and fantasy elements that flourish throughout offer just enough to keep your attention and interest.
What’s your favorite rock and roll film? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter.
Leto was released in US theaters on June 7th, 2019.