Sergey Astahov is a gay man converted by Church and state propaganda into an orthodox pro-Putin activist. Composed of terrifying images from Astahov's blog, this documentary by contemporary artist Oleg Mavromatti is the most radical insight into today's Russia and its ideological clashes.
'We must not give away our children to foreigners and homosexuals,' says Sergej Astahov in the documentary dedicated to him, No Place for Fools. A few months prior to this pronouncement, Astahov himself was openly gay.
The documentary is comprised of clips placed by Astahov on his blog. We see him praising modern Moscow shopping malls, eulogising on the pleasures of gay porn and drawing up all manner of lists - from his favourite songs to his illnesses. He considers his homosexuality one of the latter.
It gradually becomes clear, reading between the lines, that Astahov has been admitted to a psychiatric clinic to ‘cure’ him of this ‘disease’. We also see a video in which he marries a woman, subsequently morphing into a patriotic, Orthodox Christian Russian - a Putin supporter who sometimes relapses into his old self: ‘I love men.’ A documentary that pointedly highlights the insurmountable, confusing ideological changes taking place in contemporary Russia.