Vitaly seems like a betrayed man. He lost the apartment because he could not pay the mortgage due to the loss of his job. And he will never see the million rubles he allegedly paid. He lives with his dog in a corner and his biggest hobbies are staying in ice water or fighting with a friend, which he does anywhere, for example in the corridor.
“I’ve always hated how mothers cuddle their children,” Vitaly’s mother notes in one scene of this observational documentary, noting that she never cuddled her son and clearly made a mistake. Because today he is a grumpy, perpetually angry person.
Indeed, whenever the camera follows him, it’s like he can’t sit still for two or three seconds. Whether it’s tics or some inner restlessness, Vitaly acts as if he’s been in that icy water all his life.
However, he also repeatedly notes in the film how fights in combat gloves or staying in ice water confirm that he is alive. It is necessary to live in the extreme in order to feel something. And his views are also extreme.
Fifty-one-year-old Filip Remunda, who first attracted attention in 2004 with the documentary Český sen filmed with Vít Klusák, likes to portray quirky individuals. For a long time, he focuses on Eastern topics: Russia, Ukraine, China. This time he found a protagonist who seemed to embody and represent all those individuals from post-communist countries who remember the old regime and fight against the innovations from the West.
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In 2004, Filip Remunda caught the attention of the documentary Český sen, which he filmed with Vít Klusák. | Photo: CTK
But at the same time, the Russian reality is obviously different from the Czech one. Although Vitaly likes to quote Kim Jong-un or Lenin, he does not stand on the side of Vladimir Putin, who for him still represents the regime that is responsible for his misery and the misery of most people. Because he himself thinks he embodies the majority.
Vitaly understandably hates liberals and honors them with very indiscriminate words, for example when he goes to see friends in Moscow, they drag around the city together and destroy monuments at the place where opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot in 2015. At the same time, he does not hesitate to swim a half-frozen river with a flag in his hand in order to support the Russian struggle in Ukraine, because in his eyes Crimea is “logically” Russian territory. His companion notes that they have nothing against Ukraine, they feel that they are actually one nation.
It is in such details that Remund’s picture is most valuable. It shows a specific mindset, a unique type of Russian nationalism that transcends regimes and centuries and is not easy to understand from a European perspective.
The title of the film already has a similar paradoxical level. Happiness and good for everyone is Vitaly’s motto. He repeatedly defends himself with it, for example on Internet videos that he films and which have dozens or even hundreds of views. In them, for example, he runs outside in the rain dressed only in a swimsuit and captures other half-mundane, half-bizarre activities.
On the one hand, he does not hesitate to step into knee-deep water, which flooded the street without sewerage, to help his neighbor push his car, on the other hand, this action also serves only to curse the regime and the conditions in which they live.
Vitalij studied nuclear physics. Today he curses the West and supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. | Photo: Hypermarket Film
It gradually emerges from the picture that, if not in the way of life, then in socio-political issues, both she and his mother share the same views with Vitaly.
Here, however, the topic would deserve a little more insight into the coexistence of the two, how they met, what they really feel for each other. The film is too focused purely on Vitaly and his eccentric life escapades.
We see that his mother and some friends do not approve of his lifestyle. They only see him as survival. Although Vitalij is abstinent, he is clearly addicted to the physical extremes he engages in: diving into the sea waves, after which he seems to be on the verge of death, or fights with a more experienced friend, after which his eyes are swollen, that despite the swelling they don’t even see.
In some places, the creators slightly teeter on the edge when there is a threat that the picture will not be just some kind of exotic freak show. But they shot the film in such a way that the camera would not unnecessarily “graze” on Vitalij’s face and would not sell the audience cheap experiences.
Happiness and goodness to all – even if mainly incidentally and between the lines – offers a reflection on the topic “how extreme habits and opinions arise”. Although Vitaly appears to be completely self-destructive, the main message of Remund’s film is that in a broader perspective, the opinions shared by the vast majority of the protagonists with Vitaly tend to be much more destructive.
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Reporter Darja Stomatová spoke about the war in Ukraine in the program Spotlight in mid-October. | Video: The Spotlight Team
Pic becomes notably complex, as it explores the generational divide and ideological schisms within families shaped by historical trauma and changing realities. Vitaly, an embodiment of a specific frustration with the socio-political landscape, represents individuals who inhabit a liminal space between nostalgic yearning for a past regime and a visceral anger towards the contemporary Western influence.
His mother’s confession about not having provided him with maternal affection points to a broader commentary on emotional neglect prevalent in certain societal contexts. This emotionality, or lack thereof, subsequently manifests in Vitaly’s aggressive and erratic behavior. The documentary subtly critiques how personal histories intermingle with larger sociocultural narratives, suggesting that individual experiences often reflect collective trauma.
Moreover, Vitaly’s need to engage in extreme behaviors—whether through his unconventional hobbies or his fervent nationalism—becomes a mechanism for asserting his identity in a world he perceives as having failed him. It is intriguing to observe how his actions, which oscillate between self-destructive and community-focused, illustrate a desire for connection in a fragmented environment.
The filmmaker, Filip Remunda, skillfully captures these nuances, providing insight not only into Vitaly’s persona but also into the psyche of post-communist populations grappling with the legacies of their past while navigating the complexities of their present. By presenting this story through a lens that is both critical and empathetic, the documentary becomes a meditation on the multifaceted nature of human experience in the face of political and social upheaval.
Ultimately, the film urges viewers to challenge their assumptions about nationalism, personal identity, and the intertwined fates of individuals and their societies, prompting a need for deeper understanding of the diverse perspectives within the Russian mindset that Vitaly epitomizes.