What happens when propaganda falls apart and the ideals you’ve been taught to uphold come crumbling down? A fresh perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union, My Perestroika takes a familiar historical narrative and makes it personal, following five classmates who came of age during this time of enormous transition. Borya and Lyuba are married and both teach history at Moscow’s School #57; Olga is a single mother who works for a billiard table rental company; Ruslan, once a popular punk rocker, now survives by busking in the Moscow metro; and then there is Andrei, who owns a thriving chain of stores that sells expensive French shirts. The classmates’ diverging experiences and attitudes—from natural conformist to perpetual skeptic—offer a nuanced portrait of Russia then and now. In this expertly edited film, rarely seen propaganda from the “country of Happy Childhood” and home movies come together with contemporary footage to examine Russia’s middle-class and how it developed after communism fell away.  SB