According to an assortment of data nerds, political experts and hopeful liberal media writers, Donald Trump’s base appears to be shrinking in rural centers and areas of the Rust Belt of the United States. ‘America. Fortunately for the current occupant of the White House, the documentary Our new president suggests that at least the Russians still stand firmly by their man’s side. Indeed, many seen here are proud to boast that it was their country’s efforts that got him elected.

Directed by New York-based Maxim Pozdorovkin, whose previous doc Pussy Riot: a punk prayer won an award at Sundance in 2013, this mischievously put together collage film relies entirely on archive footage, YouTube clips, and snippets from public TV channels to show how Vladimir Putin, professional propagandists and the average fan of Russian Trump in the street view key players in the 2016 elections.

Admittedly, the framing device is a bit clunky, the cutoff point around the Hamburg G20 conference seems a bit arbitrary and the provenance of some clips a bit confusing. Nevertheless, it is still an impressive edited work, brilliantly edited by Pozdorovkin and Matvey Kulakov. Moreover, even the most hardened information junkies, now accustomed to the almost daily drip of crass and offensive language from Trump and his most cave-dwelling American supporters, can gasp in the face of open misogyny, racism. and sheer stupidity exhibited here on the part of some. citizens of the steppes. All is not positive, however – a TV palm reader draws a line on Trump’s unusually short thumb, as he points out, indicating a lack of superior cognitive ability.

It should be noted that no new news is revealed here: all of this material was already in the public domain, and the Russian press and public do not necessarily know more about the extent of their government’s tactics to shape the elections that we in the West. To do. They are just less shocked.

Explanatory title cards are deployed sporadically to provide context or explain who the key figures are, such as the presenter / press executive and Russia’s response to Sean Hannity, Dmitry Kiselyov or the sinister Wicked Bond-in-training Margarita Simonyan , responsible for the international cable network. RT. But aside from those occasional bursts of on-screen text as well as unnecessary quasi-academic “chapter” titles, Pozdorovkin lets the images speak effectively for themselves, or at least juxtaposed, so that a narrative form approximate begins to emerge.

The aforementioned framing device focuses on Hillary Clinton’s day trip in 1997 on a state visit while still the first lady to see the mummified corpse of a Siberian “princess” that archaeologists had recently discovered. According to a Russian conspiracy theory, this encounter may have cursed Clinton, resulting in spasms, blackouts and “signs of dementia” that she allegedly demonstrated many years later when she was campaigning in 2016. Regardless of her state of health, it is clear that the Russian media, in the line of Putin, regarded his policies as threatening and reprimanded it relentlessly through its various channels.

Trump isn’t even mentioned or seen onscreen until about 15 or 20 minutes into the document, and pretty much right off the bat he’s seen as a fun figure, a stooge for Putin, but at least a welcome proof, according to a YouTuber, that “a woman can never become president.” Elsewhere, tow-headed Slavic children are seen celebrating his victory over Clinton, while various sweaty men with poor photography skills record themselves drinking vodka toast or paying self-written folk tributes on accordions and guitars. The best song by far, perhaps a song composed with more irony than Pozdorovkin would allow, is a tribute to the troll farms of St. Petersburg.

It’s a tough call that’s more gruesome, those amateur hymns to the man who lost the popular vote but still won the race, or the openly and unabashedly partisan proclamations and disinformation of state media. Either way, without taking any particular stance that the Russians decisively rocked the 2016 election result or just nudged it, the film makes it clear how bad their propaganda effort was. insidious, relentless and cheeky, sowing memes that have metastasized virulently throughout the world.

Pozdorovkin also includes significant footage from that fateful black-tie dinner to celebrate RT’s 10th anniversary, in which former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn sat between Simonyan and Putin, like a piece of greed headed meat. between two slices of rich black rye. It’s fascinating to see body language in more detail than news reports usually show, although it’s at times like this where the director’s hands-off, low-editorial approach can be problematic for some, in particular. especially for those who are unaware of the facts of the ongoing Trump-Russia scandal.

All the same, the Presidential Band’s musical underlay helps guide viewers’ understanding of what we see here, separating what is simply ridiculous from what is actively sinister.

Production companies: Impact Partners, Third Party Film
Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin
Producers: Maxim Pozdorovkin, Joe Bender, Charlotte Cook
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jim Swartz, Nina Fialkow
Archive producers: Antonina Golikova, Sierra Pettengill, Olga Loginova
Editor: Maxim Pozdorovkin, Matvey Kulakov
Music: The Presidential Band, Ivan Markovski
Sales: UTA
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Documentary Competition)

77 minutes