Tolyatti Adrift

Tolyatti, once the symbol of socialist pride, has been transformed into the Russian Detroit, a post-apocalyptic limbo city with no future. Once known for its car industry – mainly for the legendary LADA – it’s now a decrepit place that appears to be frozen in time. Suffering the highest youth unemployment rate in the entire country, it has given rise to Boyevaya Klassika, a movement led by teenagers who believe in rescuing old cars from the local factory. They don’t just give these long-forgotten icons a new lease on life, they turn them into symbols of rebelliousness, skidding along the frozen streets of the city in spectacular out-of-control races. “Tolyatti Adrift” captures the conflicts and dreams of Slava, Misha and Lera, playing out to an electro-rock soundtrack, as they enter the rough road to post-Soviet adulthood. How do you find hope, when reality looks more like a modern dystopia rather than the bright future you were once promised?