American cinema in the USSR and Post-Communist Russia: cultural influence in open and closed societies

Abstract

In the period of complications and antagonism between countries and governments, public diplomacy and its cultural programs become crucial. And in this regard films can be a very powerful and discreet public diplomacy tool capable of acting within foreign society. As Joseph Nye had said, „Pictures often convey values more powerfully than words‟.1 In this paper I would like to use the case study of American cinema diplomacy in the USSR and Russia to demonstrate how cultural influence correlate with phenomena of open or closed societies described by Karl Popper, and how they can work even in closed societies.