We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
During the Civil War in the 1920s, Red Army troops enter a small Southern town that they have just retaken from the Tsarist White Guard. Unexpectedly, it turns out that the squad commissar, Klavdia Vavilova, is pregnant. The commander decides to put her up in a slum hovel belonging to a tinker, Yeflm Magazanik. It is rather hard for the commissar to get on in the strange milieu of a large Jewish family. Besides, her upcoming motherhood appears to her as an unfortunate encumbrance to military service. But time passes, the commissar becomes a mother, and this unsmiling, stern warrior grows soft and womanly. But soon the White Guard has taken the offensive and the Reds have to leave town. Vavilova faces a dilemma: stay and wait for better times, or leave the child with the family who sheltered her and return to the ranks. She chooses the latter.
Commissar [Komissar). Directed by Alexander Askoldov; screenplay by Askoldov (based on the short story “In the Town of Berdichev” by Vasily Grossman); cinematography by Valery Ginzburg; production design by Sergei Serebrennikov; music by Alfred Schnittke. Cast: Nonna Mordyukova, Rolan Bykov, Vasily Shukshin, and Raisa Nedashkovskaya. Black and white, 109 min. Gorky Studios (1967)/ Mosfilm Studios (1987) production.
6. In Jewish tinker Yefim Magazanik's (Rolan Bykov, center) nightmarish flashforward, the Jews of the early 1920s are led to the gas chambers of the 1940s in Commissar (made in 1967, released in 1987), Alexander Askoldov's visionary tale of love, war, maternity, and betrayal. (Photo: Kinocenter and Sovexportfilm.)
The credits are studded with stars and celebrities; the cast includes such famous actors as Nonna Mordyukova, Rolan Bykov, and Vasily Shukshin.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
