Who has a right to speak? The word and silence in Nikita Mikhalkov’sTwelve(2007)

Abstract

This article examines Nikita Mikhalkov's use of the word and silence in his portrayal of Russia in the courtroom drama Twelve (2007). Mikhalkov defines the national spirit and outlines his vision for the country's future pathin total opposition to the Western democratic values praised in Sidney Lumet's Twelve Angry Men (1957). In accordance with Mikhalkov's conservative political views, the liberal belief in the power of the word, democratic discussion and pluralism in the spheres of jurisprudence, politics and art is consistently debunked. Silence and positive action are opposed to the untruthful and impotent word. I demonstrate how the Russian director's profound distrust of the word, which reveals itself on all levels of the film's structure, reflects his criticism of the attempted democratization of Russia in the late 1980s and the 1990s and his praise of President Putin's more authoritarian politics in the 2000s. My analysis establishes Twelve's strong scepticism about the power of the word as belonging to the longstanding Russian tradition that perceives the word to be opposed to the deed. Finally, the article demonstrates how Mikhalkov manipulates the word and silence to exercise his own sovereignty in the film by discrediting and silencing dissenting voices. *