Fighting the kulaks in the Mexican hinterland The longer I watched this forgotten Mexican film, the more I became obsessed with the feeling of deja-vu. It seemed that time had turned back, and the Soviet historical drama about the times of collectivization and industrialization unfolds on the screen, in which the evil kulaks, desperately clinging to the remnants of the former world, try to prevent the sprouts of a new bright future. The embodiment of this future, of course, is the proletariat and the advanced Party intelligentsia, who impart to the downtrodden peasant poor incredible prospects, which will open the construction of new plants, factories and mines on the site of barren lands.
"January snow" begins with the fact that in the remote Mexican hinterland, in which after the discovery of a certain deposit there was a mining village, a young doctor arrives, full of strength and hope. But it is not the joyful aborigines who meet him, but the arrogant and confident servants of the local kulak (that is, sorry, ranchero), who are not happy that with the construction of a mine on these lands there is a threat to the unlimited power of their owner. Martin (the name of the main character) is immediately brutally beaten and unequivocally ordered to leave. But a fiery communist and a revolutionary... (hell, I'm wrong again) Driven by a sense of social responsibility and piously believing in progress and a bright future, the doctor believes that he is obliged to do his duty at all costs. Together with the local teacher Maria, he decides to confront the kulak gang and achieve a better life for the miners and the peasant poor.
Those who found the 70s - 80s of the last century, it is easy to imagine further events, remembering, for example, at least such a Soviet film as "Man Changes Skin." There will be threats, sabotage, violence from rancheros. There will be a slow and persistent overcoming of distrust on the part of the local population, there will be clarification of the political moment and the organization of resistance, for which Martin will have to enter into open conflict with the bandits. Then, however, the film will turn to the time-tested and terrain (Mexico after all!) path of the western, but at the same time will not forget for a second about its social message.
The adventure component will remain in the background, because “January Snow” is intended to clarify, not entertain. To lead to a brighter future, to preach enlightenment, progress and industrial development. Advocates of the dark past must either accept or disappear. Healthy forces, such as the son of the ranchero, turning his arms against his father, will enter this future hand in hand with the advanced detachments of the workers, peasants and the working intelligentsia. Such as Martin and Maria, who conquered prejudice, stopped a terrible epidemic and defeated a ruthless gang of old owners of the estate.
It is difficult to say whether the author of this film Hernando Name saw Soviet paintings dedicated to the era of the early 30s, whether he read Sholokhov’s “Virgin Raised” but voluntarily or unwittingly his “January Snow” turned out to be flesh from the flesh of this cultural layer. Of course, his characters are devoid of communist illusions (at least they do not express them out loud), and Dr. Martin does not look like either Semyon Davydov or, let alone Makar Nagulnov, but he is clearly of the same blood. And the same unbending beliefs.
Perhaps it would be too bold to talk about the phenomenon of the revival of the ideas and principles of Soviet art in the Latin American cinema of the 90s and 2000s. But the appearance of such tapes as the Argentine “Neither God, nor master nor husband”, the Brazilian “Olga”, the Mexican “January Snow” can no longer be called an accident. Socialist ideas, in one form or another, have proved damn tenacious. And today you can't say good or bad.