Review

War, humanity in Commissar

COMMISSAR. With Nanna Mordukova,
olan Bykov, Raisa Niedashkovskaya.
Directed by Alexander Askoldov. Based on
he City of Berdish by Vassily Grossman.
Gorky Studio production. At the Van-
Couver East Cinema Oct. 17-23.

_In battle, a soldier must maintain the
Ughtest discipline. That is particularly true

_ When one is fighting to prevent the over-

thtow of the world’s first socialist revolu-
ion. Even the slightest tip in the direction of
Normal human pleasure is something that
Must be avoided. Right?
ell, not quite. At least that’s the argu-
ment behind the screenplay of Commissar,
Oviet entry at the recent Vancouver
Nternational Film Festival set to run next
Week at the Vancouver East Cinema (Oct.

tama .
Films

cast eyes she confesses to her superior that
she is in the advanced stages of pregnancy (if
this seems a bit incredible, take note that
already stout Klavdia is enfolded in an army
greatcoat). The commander must take
some time off, and local party officials see
that she is billeted with a local family.

The thing is, the family is Jewish. This isa
time when anti-Semitism is rampant, and
Jews in response are contemptuous of “the
Russians.” The stage is set for social tension.
Yefim (Rolan Bykov), the father of the poor
family that includes six children, protests
loudly at the intrusion. Klavdia is stoic, but
eyes her new quarters with apparent dis-

taste.

The problem with Commissar is that
we're never sure if the army leader is anti-

“Se a asa oc a i ra ae a ae

17-23,7 and 9:30 p.m.). People are bound to

; Stop and smell the flowers — or engage in

other human activities — irrespective of

- thetime and place, this film that was shelved

for 20 years tells us.

V Ommissar is the rank held by Klavdia
Bova, a commander in the Red Army
Trently holding a town in the Ukraine.
© year is 1919, and the war is not going
ell for the Soviet forces, who are losing
Stound to the advancing, counter-revolution-
aty White Army.
b N such circumstances, slackness is not to
© tolerated. When a soldier temporarily
©serts the ranks to visit his wife ina nearby
illage, the imperious Klavdia orders the
an executed.
: Ut it turns out that the commissar her-
“il is guilty of an indiscretion. With down-

p>

Semitic — a heavy charge to lay against
veterans of the revolution — or alienated
by the new circumstances. (Compared to
the battlefield, the humble home is probably
the lap of luxury. Whether out of a sense of
self-denial or habit, Klavdia eschews the
comfortable bed to sleep on the floor.)
Actor Nanna Mordukova doesn’t help
with the interpretation, playing the role of
Klavdia with such impassivity it is difficult
to gauge.what she is thinking. Considerably
more animated are Yefim, his wife Mariya
(Raisa Niedashkovskaya) and the children.
They offer the emotional and physical sup-
port necessary when Klavdia goes through
her difficult childbirth and discovers moth-
erhood. :
The process mellows Klavdia, allowing
her to appreciate the joys of home life, child

rearing and family. And through .it she
becomes sensitive to her hosts, their culture,
and the harsh reality of pogroms and other
forms of anti-Semitism.

The acknowledgement of anti-Semitism
in the Soviet Union — albeit, a young
Soviet Republic in this case — and the dis-
tinction of Jews as a culture within Soviet
life were supposedly the reasons this film,
made in 1967, was shelved for 20 years
before being released in the more benign
light of glasnost.

We might suggest, however, that the
depiction of revolutionaries as somewhat
less than gods, the message that life can not
be all sacrifice (“When do we get to live?”
Yefim asks Klavdia) and the presentation of
war, however justified, as cruel, may have
been more compelling reasons.

In Commissar, the populace suffers.
When soldiers march through muddy
streets dragging deadly cannon, the roar is
deafening. In one noteworthy dream
sequence, Red Army cavalry riding into
battle are replaced by a herd of riderless
horses — a symbolic suggestion, perhaps,
that in battle all traces of humanity disap-~
pear.

Such sentiments applied to a story con-
cerning the Russian civil war may not have
been popular with Soviet leaders, and pos-
sibly with the public, two decades ago. And
today, both Western and Soviet audiences
can debate the merits of the film’s message,
and perhaps pose these questions: is it fair to
propose a dichotomy between being a revo-
lutionary stalwart and a human: being?

_ Does the film hold this to be true of all

self-disciplined revolutionaries, or does it
only criticize a type? Are somewhat disaf-
fected peasants, such as Yefim and Mariya,

-the only people to wonder when struggle

ends and the enjoyment of life begins?
Certainly, it is not inapproriate to set up
the debate, as the film does. Shot in black
and white, with some slow-moving scenes,
Commissar holds interest as it probes the
psyche of people at war.
— Dan Keeton

CHINA

REFORM AND THE FUTURE

Slides and commentary by Tribune editor Sean Griffin,
recently returned from two weeks in the
People’s Republic of China

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Pacific Tribune, October 10, 1988 » 11