Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on January 03, 2006 at 07:09:46

Under this clumsy title hides a monstrous, 7 hours long mini-series made by the rather famous (and I saying this while cringing...) Russian actor/director Nikita Mikhalkov.

Most of you know him from a his successful and nearly-universally loved film Burnt by the Sun, and of course every Russian remembers him from his early signature film I Step Through Moscow (Ya Shagaiu Po Moskve). Coming from an artistic family, a super-privileged background, a son of one of the most famous Soviet poets Sergei Mikhalkov and Natalia Konchalovsky, who gave her last name to Nikita's brother - Andrey Konchalovsky, he had everything going for him, and quickly became a subject of passionate love affair - the public adored him and his youthful characters.

He kept his head under the political radar, not making any waves, though. Until the Perestroika... that gave him new opportunity.

Quickly he became a head of the Russian Cinema Union, and essentially the single most powerful figure in the movie industry. Some say he is ruling with an iron Communist hand, and that doesn't seem like an overstatement.

Like many former devoted communists (or a communist lackey, if you like that better), he suddenly discovered new freedom. Burnt by the Sun is a pure reflection of that fact, which immediately put him in the forefront of those determined to tell the truth about past times. Ugly truth.

Of course with no risks involved one can say anything he wants, his only downfall being low revenues, and Nikita is determined to get all the mileage he could out of this wave of "discovering the truth".

Hence this documentary on fates of famous Russian White Army generals, officers, cossacks, and their children, sent into exile by the ruthless Reds.

I have to warn you - a prior familiarity with the subject is a must to fully appreciate the scope and the level of truthfulness of this work. As all along you will be scratching your head wondering at the strange way in which Nikita chooses to paint the history.

Mind you, many facts in the film are what they should be - facts. But quickly some strange sensation will enter you - that something is left unsaid, that things seem to be presented in a softly distorted way, viewed from a not-so-pleasant perspective.

In early episodes Nikita seems to be completely reluctant to simply say it as it is. So he dances around the subject of Red Terror by throwing in generalities, not pointing his finger adorned with a humongous gold ring, at those responsible. Then he suddenly shows his dirty under-ware by making the Hungarian born Bela Kun a scapegoat - his foreign origin being perhaps his greatest guilt, as the Mother Russia did not produce enough monsters on her own. And from that point Nikita's Russophil roots become more and more obvious, his xenophobia, his carefully hidden anti-Semitism, his devoted and slavish love for the rulers of the modern Russia all become too obvious to be just a background - they start to interfere with historic truth.

Thus general Denikin is portrayed in a rosy one-sided amicable way, with no single word of tremendous wave of pogroms that took place with his tacit approval. Apparently to Nikita thousands of slaughtered Jews is simply a small footnote to the glorious history of his beloved White Army.

He is unwilling to tarnish the bright image of that army with anything. They are all white knights in shiny armor, subject to no reproach. While they do get plenty of my sympathy too, there is no way around the fact that the White movement had its own share of internal rot, ineptitude and sheer stupidity, that in addition to the tremendous determination of the Reds, contributed to its defeat. All that Nikita refuses to acknowledge.

Still, there are plenty of good sub-stories, interesting observations and facts in the movie to warrant a recommendation. Never mind that orgasmic feat Nikita throws over Putin putting (Putin - putting... Putin - putting... I like that!) flowers on the grave of an exiled famous Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Never mind that in his (and Putin's) own land the relatives of those slaughtered by communists STILL have no memorial, no place to come and grieve over their departed loved ones... that the only monument to millions of Gulag victims is that stone on the lawn in front of the dreaded Lubianka jail, the jail that is still there, and that still carries the relief of its founder Dzerzhinsky on its front.

A stone... and the president has guts to go through a huge public relations event by walking through the cemetery, putting his flowers on this grave and on that... while in his own backyard millions of graves are disappearing under generations of weeds.

That doesn't bother Nikita. He is so happy that a former exile, a frail old man, is given his Russian passport back. His heart seems to be firmly planted in Kremlin receptions, not everyday life.

This all this said, I still recommend this film to anyone interested in world history, as - as I mentioned above - many facts do indeed represent a fascinating picture, even set to Nikita's rather uninspiring and monotonous delivery, his choppy speech pattern not helping matters much.