I Don't Cry

“Stroma's funeral” or “grandmother” is the name of the three-day rite, which is held every year in the village of Shutilovo, Nizhny Novgorod region. In its spirit, it is the folk carnival, about which Mikhail Bakhtin and Francois Rabelais wrote: a change of appearance, general merriment, plenty of food, drink, indecent words and deeds. During this game of death and burial, there is no place for genuine grief. But when things are going awry in the non-holiday life of a Russian village, it is very difficult not to cry.