Politician Maxim Kruglov Is Writing a Book About Paul Thomas Anderson, the First in Russian. He Is Writing It in Prison. Bereg Publishes an Excerpt

Forwarded From Plot (Sofya Vorobyova)

Politician Maxim Kruglov is writing a book about Paul Thomas Anderson, the first in Russian. He is writing it in prison. Bereg publishes an excerpt

A story from the “life gets ahead of art” series. In October 2025, Maxim Kruglov, deputy chairman of Yabloko, was arrested on suspicion of spreading “fake news” (the grounds were posts about the number of Ukrainians killed in the full-scale war, as well as about Bucha). He is now in a pretrial detention center, where he is continuing work he began before prison: a book about Paul Thomas Anderson.

I was surprised to learn from this piece that, as it turns out, there is no such book in Russian. Kruglov describes himself as a big fan of the director, and from the text, of course, it is clear that this is a fan’s study rather than a stern academic one. That, however, does not make it any less interesting.

For example, I knew nothing about PTA’s childhood and teenage amateur films, and every example there is both funny and revealing. For instance, there is a half-hour amateur film, “The Dirk Diggler Story,” which Anderson made when he was 17; it is a tribute to porn actor John Holmes (there is nothing surprising about the subject matter, since the world of porn production surrounded PTA as he grew up in 1980s Los Angeles). The project eventually grew into “Boogie Nights,” the film that made Anderson famous.

Kruglov’s unwritten book is also commented on in this piece by film critic Anton Dolin:

We decided to publish the author’s introduction, written already in Butyrka, as well as one of the manuscript’s opening chapters, to encourage Kruglov and his future readers. And maybe, at the same time, to help find an editor and publisher for the future book. We believe it will be finished and will certainly find its audience.

I hope the book really does come together.

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If the link to the piece does not open, you can read it here or here.