Cinematryoshka: Viktor Tsoi, both a music icon and a movie hero

Viktor Tsoi's group was named Kino, the Russian word for "cinema". How did cinema affect Tsoi's career?

His most popular songs "Changes", "The Star Called Sun" and "Blood Group" appeared in the independent movies of the perestroika era. In 1987, a film by one of the state’s officially sanctioned directors, Sergei Solovyov, called Assa premiered in movie theaters. The film had an unexpected ending: a live performance by Kino. The band performed a song with the refrain “We are waiting for changes” (“Mi zhdem peremen”), which became the unofficial anthem of perestroika. It is interesting to note that the song was unrelated to politics and actually told the story of a teenager dreaming about life as an adult.
Obviously, these songs did become so widely known not just because they were in the movies. The main reason is that Viktor Tsoi was the only Russian rock hero. Tsoi, who defined the rebellious spirit of perestroika, has become the archetypal image of the Russian rock star and lives on in his songs, which remain eternally popular. His popularity is proved by our Voх Pop that we filmed in the center of Moscow, near the famous Wall of Tsoi.

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