Reflexive Modernity in Marlen Khutsiev’s Film “Ilyich’s Gate (I Am Twenty)”

From the methodological and socio-philosophical points of view the text explores the film by Soviet film director Marlen Khutsiev “Ilyich's Gate (I'm twenty)” as a significant work of the Russian creative industry. The author believes that in order to understand the relevance and internal conflict of the movie, one should turn to the philosophical concept of reflexive modernity, which implies a special emphasis on the free legitimization of people's actions. The article analyzes how Khutsiev portrays the changes in Soviet society during the Khrushchev period, touching upon the problems of personal freedom, collectivism and ideological emptiness in the context of modernization according to new models. The film demonstrates the changes in the social and cultural life of that time, criticizes the ineffectiveness of the ideological framework and embodies the ideals of personal search in a world of fundamental uncertainty. It also focuses on the problems of self-realization in the context of the loss of traditional values, and internal inconsistency of a society that is ready for change, but is not able to understand what how to stabilizes these inevitable and forced changes. In conclusion, the author shows that the world depicted by the director is a world of fundamentally unhappy people who are ahead of their time, but still do not have the opportunity to compensate for the cultural tension, that is created by arising society of consumer capitalism and cultural hyperproduction. Based on the analysis, the article emphasized the importance of M. Khutsiev's artistic vision as well as the foundations for integrating thaw cinema into the current cultural space.