Experienced Russian director Andrei Konchalovskiy, who in 1966 co-wrote the excellent biographical epic Andrei Rublev with director Andrei Tarkovsky, co-writes and directs Dear Comrades!, a profoundly affecting historical drama. It negotiates the atrocious massacre in the Russian city of Novocherkassk on the 2 June 1962: a massacre perpetrated against unarmed protesters by the Soviet army and KGB officials; which according to the "official" investigation resulted in the deaths of 26 people and more than 200 arrests.

It's a tense and uncompromising drama featuring an incredible performance from Julia Vysotskaya as Lyudmila, a devout Stalinist Soviet and executive of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who contends with anti-Soviet activity harshly and cold-shoulders anyone voicing any complaints, including her own…

83/100

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According to dictionary, Communism refers a theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs. But in practical cases it's not just Communist but every single selfish power monger political parties after gaining power literally remains apathetic to every single promises what they have made to all of those civilians who gave them power at once. And honestly we the common people don't really interested to bargain over every single pledge which they have taken, but we just need safety and proper happy living till death...we just need to have a simple lifestyle where atleast we have proper scope to…

Dear Comrades is a solemn look at Soviet realities. It is easy to look at the theoretical basis of the USSR's creation and see what potential it might have had. However, in practical reality, people care about prices and rations and wages. They are not concerned with theory and quotas and promises. Dear Comrades is about a real strike that happened in the 1960s and the massacre that followed. The idea of worker disillusionment within a socialist country seems almost a betrayal, and in a sense the central conflict of Dear Comrades is a debate on who has betrayed who. The party sees the workers' discontent as malicious, betraying the socialism which is claimed to have given them plenty. An…

77. Mostra - La Biennale di Venezia

During a period of high inflation in the Soviet Union when the common folk had food supplies around the minimum level of existence, the executive of the KPSS—Liudmila—fights for the perpetuation of Stalinism, sure that the Soviet dictator's ideology is optimal for everybody. Liudmila embodies a remarkably curious blend between the blinkered part of society, thoroughly believing the government's honesty, and the hypocritical politicians who exploit their "more equal" status propagating Stalinism for their own benefit. For example, she comes by a shop, where myriad people are queueing for two eggs and (if lucky) a bread, and enters a hush-hush room to collect her delicacies and imported liquor—as a perk of her political…

Cinematic depictions of protests and revolutions typically use the perspective of the workers or the marginalized, but in Dear Comrades!, veteran Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky uses the lens of a Stalinist party member who is a part of and comfortable with the oppressive institution. With a less adept filmmaker, the result will be tone-deaf and uninvolving, but Konchalovsky triumphantly sheds light on how people get to be indoctrinated with the wrong ideals but still have a possibility to be transformed, albeit incompletely, when an incident affects their personal lives. It deserves to be a film that fuels multiple conversations.

Lyuda Syomina, marvelously portrayed by Julia Vysotskaya, might be quite the divisive character on the surface—she was the one who recommended…

2020 Ranking 

Andrei Konchalovsky’s (must check out more of his work) latest film depicts the 1962 massacre in Novocherkassk of protestors against hiking food costs in the Khruschev era, seen through the eyes of Lyudmila (Julia Vysotskaya), a government official and Stalinist devotee. She finds herself in a most difficult predicament on this ill-fated day as she struggles to reconcile her professional advocation of deadly force for the protestors, with her desperate search for her missing daughter (Yulia Burova) amidst the chaos. It's a slow burning build, and I'll admit I was a bit disengaged at points, to the massacre at the halfway point which is a masterclass in artful, yet harrowing direction, whether it's the use of cinematography, music,…

I really just couldn't engage with this. I really think it has some interesting things to say within it, and I am an absolute sucker for the look that this has, but the story of Dear Comrades!, while it finishes with what is an impactful and beautiful ending that suits the despair of the film before it, felt as cold as the mother/daughter connection that is throughout it. As the relationship between the pair begins to warm up, this becomes almost instantly more interesting. The ending sequence is truly outstanding and I think that the final 30 minutes of this are, without question, the best portion. Roughly the first 45-60 minutes of this is dedicated to spotlighting our protagonist Lyudmila…

Podemos até afirmar que esse é um filme “anti-soviético” com base nos valores objetivos que aborda. De fato, o filme trata dos conflitos internos presentes na União Soviética e de uma espécie de desilusão por parte das pessoas a respeito do rumo que o país tomou.

Entretanto, parece um filme muito mais dedicado a articular as contradições internas de cada personagem. Parece que a maioria dos personagens do filme vive um conflito interno entre a imagem que precisa passar de acordo com seu lugar na sociedade comunista e as particularidades do âmbito privado.

O maior exemplo disso está na personagem da mãe. A forma com que ela se veste, o seu penteado e a sua postura mudam radicalmente quando está…