Directed by:
Andrey KonchalovskiyCinematography:
Andrey NaydyonovCast:
Yuliya Vysotskaya, Andrey Gusev, Vladislav Komarov, Иван Мартынов, Denis Zaynullin, Aleksandr GokhVOD (1)
Plots(1)
USSR, Novocherkassk, 1962. Lyudmila is a member of the local Communist Party. She’s a staunch upholder of the Communist regime and ideals and despises any form of dissent. During a labour strike at the local electromotive factory, she witnesses the shooting on the protesters by the Army sent by the government to quell the strike: a massacre. An event that will change her vision of the world forever. The city is torn apart by riots, arrests, hasty convictions and by the curfew. Many people are injured and several ones are missing. Precisely in those days Lyudmila’s daughter disappears into thin air and the woman starts an anguished, dangerous and relentless search, in spite of the blockade of the city, the arrests and the attempt at a cover-up by the authorities. The movie is based on a true story that happened on June 2nd, 1962 in Novocherkassk and kept secret until the Nineties. The investigation was started in 1992. The victims were secretly buried in graves under fake names so they could never be found. Major suspects among the top Soviet officials were dead at that time. Culprits have never been convicted. (Venice International Film Festival)
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Reviews (2)
When I popped the DVD into the player, I had no clue what I was in for. The Soviet Union was always devoid of those products of decadent capitalist morality — serial killers, dissidents, drug addicts, or strikes. So, even in Novocherkassk in 1962, there were no strikes, no one got killed, injured, or locked up, and anyone who says otherwise might end up in somebody else's grave. The plot of the film didn't exactly bring me joy (I'm not that twisted), but the way the creators translated the events into moving pictures was fantastic. The movie grabbed me right from the start, keeping me 'glued' to the screen throughout. When it ended, I couldn't believe two hours had flown by. It's a raw and gritty affair, excellently shot, with Julia Vysotskaya delivering an absolutely brilliant performance.
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Even if no one told me, I'd guess the movie was made by an eighty-five year old director. It feels schoolboyish, the camera is locked in this kind of digital greyness, making it impossible for any illusion of the time to click. That's partly because most of the people in it are played as if they're from the Sklep Theatre, and as if the film is afraid of the fact that the protagonist is a Stalinist Bolshevik, so most of the villains are portrayed with the sensitivity of the Black Barons. The film is thus not the much-needed introspection of a confused and corrupt regime, but a simple anti-communist pamphlet, which was matched by the audience's affectedly heroic reactions at certain points in the film.
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Gallery (13)
Photo © Andrei Konchalovsky Studios
![Dear Comrades! - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/164/750/164750814_fff683.jpg)
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