Katya and her 6-year-old son Sanya, who, in 1952, meet a veteran Soviet officer named Tolyan. Katya falls in love with Tolyan, who turns out to be a small time criminal, but who also becomes a father figure to Sanya ...
I want to note the skill with which the film was made - even without taking into account brilliant acting work. Greatly recreated the atmosphere of everyday life in the 50s (Stalin and a little later) years - scarce housing with rented corners, patrols on the streets and loading prisoners for transportation, a hospital and a cemetery
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I want to note the skill with which the film was made - even without taking into account brilliant acting work. Greatly recreated the atmosphere of everyday life in the 50s (Stalin and a little later) years - scarce housing with rented corners, patrols on the streets and loading prisoners for transportation, a hospital and a cemetery with fences from the wreckage of beds, educational marching in an orphanage ... And types, types, types: motley residents of communal apartments, children in the yard (especially lame friend Sanki), injured disabled with a bicycle, found the prospect of tetanus bored wife of a surgical doctor, responsible and not very fighters of the transport police ... And Tolyan himself, with a saleswoman from the outskirts who picked him up and a buffalo friend, it is impossible to remove it better. Still shabby buildings and endless railway tracks – cars – the landscape of the country. Watch and review... In tone - the music of Vladimir Dashkevich. At the end of the film (when the grown-up Sanek meets the retired Tolyan) – an amazing effect of presence: it seems that you yourself wander around the nooks with the smell of sleepers. Ours, darling. Something from childhood.
The film makes you think that not everything in life is black or white: no matter how bad Tolyan was, but he still gave life lessons, lessons of strength to little Sanka, gave him a sense of security, explained what his mother could not explain. Also, the film about how our passions destroy us: Tolyana is a passion for an easy life, and Katya is a strong feeling for a man.
The thief must be in prison
This film by Pavel Chukhrai is one of three films that were nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign film. I am talking only about the Russian period, I do not take into account the USSR. I had a certain feeling about this film before I watched it. The Oscars just wouldn't
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The thief must be in prison This film by Pavel Chukhrai is one of three films that were nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign film. I am talking only about the Russian period, I do not take into account the USSR. I had a certain feeling about this film before I watched it. The Oscars just wouldn't be nominated, so I was expecting something special. And I got it: a very life story in conjunction with some inner experiences of a little boy, against the background of a very robbery plot. In the autumn of 1952, six-year-old Sanka and his young mother meet a handsome military man named Tolyan on a train. Katya falls in love with Tolyana, and together they begin to live as a family. But in fact, this brave and charming officer is not a retired military officer, but a professional thief. Against the background of such a seemingly simple plot, we are shown a whole range of internal experiences of the voiceover of a young boy, and the voice behind the scenes belongs to him already at a fairly mature age. As I said, the story here is not intricate. Tolyan, with the complete resistance of his new friend Katya, robs communal apartments to somehow feed himself. After all, all this happens in Stalin’s time, and no matter how much they drank to him, they still considered him a tyrant in their hearts. The culmination of all this story was, of course, one of the last frames of the film. He turns the whole understanding of the film on its head. If in the beginning it was possible to sympathize with Tolyan, and somehow worry for him, then, strangely, by the end of the film this feeling is greatly enhanced and it is impossible without some longing and sadness, some even with tears in their eyes, to look at the departing train, even though the image of a seemingly good thief, so carefully created by Chukhrai, would literally be scattered in a couple of minutes. But still, the main theme of the film, in my opinion, is not that during the years of Stalin’s repressions, people earned as much as they could, but in the courage of an individual who is able to defend his honor and the honor of his loved ones, even despite the great pain in his heart. All this is expressed in the image of the boy Sasha. Two major roles have been played. Vladimir Mashkov and Ekaterina Rednikova. I especially remember the image of Mashkov. With such cold blood, he robbed these communal houses. Such an unshakable image that combines both love for Katya, for Sasha, and complete serenity, anger at the whole world. Even though Mashkov has always been an image of a militant actor for me, he played a wonderful drama in this film. I would say that this film was nominated for an Oscar. Too bad he never got the statue. Very good, both in semantic and simply in everyday terms, as a description of the life of those difficult times for our country.Original
The thief must be in prison
This film by Pavel Chukhrai is one of three films that were nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign film. I am talking only about the Russian period, I do not take into account the USSR. I had a certain feeling about this film before I watched it. The Oscars just wouldn't
more
The thief must be in prison This film by Pavel Chukhrai is one of three films that were nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign film. I am talking only about the Russian period, I do not take into account the USSR. I had a certain feeling about this film before I watched it. The Oscars just wouldn't be nominated, so I was expecting something special. And I got it: a very life story in conjunction with some inner experiences of a little boy, against the background of a very robbery plot. In the autumn of 1952, six-year-old Sanka and his young mother meet a handsome military man named Tolyan on a train. Katya falls in love with Tolyana, and together they begin to live as a family. But in fact, this brave and charming officer is not a retired military officer, but a professional thief. Against the background of such a seemingly simple plot, we are shown a whole range of internal experiences of the voiceover of a young boy, and the voice behind the scenes belongs to him already at a fairly mature age. As I said, the story here is not intricate. Tolyan, with the complete resistance of his new friend Katya, robs communal apartments to somehow feed himself. After all, all this happens in Stalin’s time, and no matter how much they drank to him, they still considered him a tyrant in their hearts. The culmination of all this story was, of course, one of the last frames of the film. He turns the whole understanding of the film on its head. If in the beginning it was possible to sympathize with Tolyan, and somehow worry for him, then, strangely, by the end of the film this feeling is greatly enhanced and it is impossible without some longing and sadness, some even with tears in their eyes, to look at the departing train, even though the image of a seemingly good thief, so carefully created by Chukhrai, would literally be scattered in a couple of minutes. But still, the main theme of the film, in my opinion, is not that during the years of Stalin’s repressions, people earned as much as they could, but in the courage of an individual who is able to defend his honor and the honor of his loved ones, even despite the great pain in his heart. All this is expressed in the image of the boy Sasha. Two major roles have been played. Vladimir Mashkov and Ekaterina Rednikova. I especially remember the image of Mashkov. With such cold blood, he robbed these communal houses. Such an unshakable image that combines both love for Katya, for Sasha, and complete serenity, anger at the whole world. Even though Mashkov has always been an image of a militant actor for me, he played a wonderful drama in this film. I would say that this film was nominated for an Oscar. Too bad he never got the statue. Very good, both in semantic and simply in everyday terms, as a description of the life of those difficult times for our country.Original
A very typical post-Soviet era storyline. A bunch of vagabonds lured an innocent teenage girl to their apartment, offered her a drink, intimidated, then more
A very typical post-Soviet era storyline. A bunch of vagabonds lured an innocent teenage girl to their apartment, offered her a drink, intimidated, then gang raped her. Local cops are incapable to undertake an adequate actions against the scoundrels - prevented by the superior chief of the local police, who is the dad of one of the scumbags. The case is closed. The girl's granddad tired of an endless circumlocution decides to take revenge in his own hands. close
Danila goes to his successful brother, Victor, in Petersburg to start a new life. Unknown to Danila, Victor is a contract killer, but is in hiding after more
Danila goes to his successful brother, Victor, in Petersburg to start a new life. Unknown to Danila, Victor is a contract killer, but is in hiding after asking for too much money to assassinate a Chechen mob boss. To avoid exposure, Victor convinces Danila to kill the boss instead. close
Using an elaborate system of denunciation, the chief of the Zone keeps his prisoners in check. A new inmate, allegedly imprisoned for speculating on postage more
Using an elaborate system of denunciation, the chief of the Zone keeps his prisoners in check. A new inmate, allegedly imprisoned for speculating on postage stamps, tries to rebel against the system. close
In 1953, the year Stalin died, many prisoners (some political, but mostly common criminals) were released from the Soviet Gulags. This is the story of more
In 1953, the year Stalin died, many prisoners (some political, but mostly common criminals) were released from the Soviet Gulags. This is the story of a remote settlement which was under attack by a bunch of these recently-released blood-thirsty thugs in the summer of 1953, and the townspeople, along with a two political prisoners, who try to stop them. close