Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the symbols and strong-man rhetoric of totalitarianism have now come crashing back into global politics. Could this rise be subconsciously aided by remnants of servility that persisted in peoples’ minds even as the Soviet Union crumbled? Homo Sovieticus takes its name from a term that was used pejoratively to describe the average conformist person in the Soviet Union and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc.
The film’s director Ivo Briedis and screenwriter, journalist Rita Ruduša — both born in the USSR — take a highly personal journey to explore the phenomenon of “Homo Sovieticus,” investigating whether they can define this mindset within themselves. Meeting with their contemporaries in various Eastern European countries, they also explore whether people who possess the totalitarian mindset belong to a specific geographical space: After all, the Ninth of May Victory Day demonstrations to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 are held annually as far and wide as Berlin, Australia, and even New York.
