Aleksandr Askoldov: Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar: Take One

In making Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar / The Commissar (1967/1988), Aleksandr Askoldov was so audacious he was banned by Soviet authorities from ever making another film. This highly memorable 1967 production was finally reconstructed and released just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, in 1988.

Why the official dissapproval? It's not specifically anti-Soviet. But: set during the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) immediately after the Great War of 1914-1918, it shows the human costs of these convulsions, ones that are not always heroic nor black and white (though he film is shot in black and white). Weaving surrealism through a realistic narrative, the film follows pregnant Red cavalry Commissar Klavdia Vavilova into the mostly Jewish city of Berdichev in the Ukraine, where she is left by a fellow officer to be cared for by a reluctant Jewish family.  Later, the Reds must retreat, leaving the city to the mercy of the Whites, who have already perpetrated many anti-Jewish pogroms during the Civil War. Yefim Mahazannik, member of the family that takes the Commissar in, wonders at one point why world reaction to the Boer War and the Armenian Genocide had been so vociferous in recent years, but so little had yet been said in response to the proto-Holocaust pogroms in Ukraine.

Much more to be discussed, hopefully sooner rather than later. Based on "In the Town of Berdichev," a short story by Vasily Grossman.