Child 44

[mendeleyev]

We watched the movie Child 44 last night, first in Russian and then I took another look in English.

I was moved, and frankly am still very stirred by the film. Why? I am really not yet fully certain.

In banning the film, the government said that there were "historical inaccuracies." Laughable. There are historical inaccuracies in hundreds of WWII movies that enjoy wide approval, but of course they do not call into question troubling aspects of Soviet period.

Today in Russia there is a resurgence of anything Soviet, and especially related to Comrade Stalin. Point out any faults, and one is quickly met with the response that there were excesses, and mistakes were made, but in the end they were for the greater good of society.

Filmed in other parts of Eastern Europe, CHILD 44 was set in 1953 Soviet Russia. At first I was annoyed at what at first I misunderstood as a lengthy subplot, but soon it was clear that the mass fear, denunciations, and frequent arrests were actually a very important part of the theme.

Tom Hardy is cast as "Leo Demidov" a member of the security police who refused to denounce his wife, Raisa. "Raisa," played by the very accomplished Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, was fingered falsely as a traitor. Instead of being executed, which was what would have really happened, the two are exiled to a provincial town. No, that would not have happened had either been charged for treason, but it does give a story line for Leo to meet local police General Mikhail Nesterov, nicely played by Gary Oldman.

After some initial misgivings, they begin to follow the clues to find and apprehend a serial killer who preys on young boys. However, tracking down any crime other than alleged treason, is itself prohibited. As the movie characters remind us, "There is no crime in Paradise."

Some may chuckle at the idea of "There is no crime in Paradise" but decades ago I and a handful of Western journalists attended a trial in Kyiv at which the chief prosecutor began the proceedings by declaring that there is no crime in the Soviet Union, and therefore no need for prisons. Later in the day the defense team seized on the same theme. By the sentencing phase however, suddenly the young men accused of robbing and beating a Western businessman and his wife, were not only convicted, but sentenced to several years in one of those nonexistent prisons.

Such gaping holes in logic are part of the movie, and my guess is that one would have to have experienced some of that to understand. The same people who can rationalize that there is no crime, yet lived in fear of heavy footsteps on stairways in the middle of the night, are the same people who seem nonplussed at the announcement that some election was won with 126% of the vote. That same irrational character allows life to go on with the assumption that there are no troops in Ukraine, even as the number of dead boys continues to climb.

Don't speak out, don't get involved, don't make yourself a target, don't buck the system, and hope that nothing happens to you, is woven into the fabric of this film. It is also slowly finding itself slowly reentering modern Russian life.

The big cities of Russia have changed a lot, grown up as it were. But the movie is very realistic in portraying that period in Russia, and especially what life was like outside the large towns. Some areas of Russia today are not that far removed from the drab apartments, dirty streets, and smoke filled air. It was like going back into a time machine, and I had to wonder if I am perhaps the only Westerner who can relate to those scenes. Today, many of the Western expats in Russia are part of a newer generation, average age 30-40, who have no historic context of those times.

Leo's cousin, also a security services agent, was cast as Jewish--that was intriguing as few Jews were allowed into those ranks without really good connections. Other than the actors features, it wasn't part of the theme, but interesting none the less.

I was most intrigued by Raisa, played by Noomi Rapace. She was perfect for the part; born Swedish and growing up in Iceland, she was from "the same neighborhood" in many ways. She at times was the splitting image of my wife, not exactly as in mirroring looks, but in posture, composure, emotion, and her beauty in spite of a purposeful lack of cosmetics. Her character was so much like my wife that I found myself squeezing Mrs. Mendeleyeva's hand constantly during the viewing. Her poise and compassion at the end of the film were strikingly similar to my beautiful soulmate.

Our youngest daughter turned 25 this week, and we had a nice birthday bash with some close family and friends. I kept thinking of her during the movie, and wondered how her friends will view Russia's Soviet history as the years go by. Does she possess enough historical context to that period to understand it, or has consumerism and instant gratification erased any trace of their parents and grandparents struggles to survive? That, I suspect, is part of the purpose of the film. Of course, that also helps us understand why it was banned.

Finally, why did it fail at the Box Office? My first instinct is that Western audiences have no context in which to understand such a movie. From a perspective of real and living history there is no correlation, other than serial killing, to draw in an audience. The audience which needs to view the film cannot due to government restriction. That is a shame, because of all who might learn something from the plot, it is the very people who created that legacy and lived in those times.

[Brasscasing]

Thanks Mendy,

I'll need to see the movie. I read the book a few months ago and it riveting.

Brass

[cc3]

I read the book years ago, but don't know if I want to view the film with my Ukrainian significant other, at least, not until she has read the extremely well-written and thought-provoking book by British writer Tom Rob Smith. It is the first book in "The Child 44 Trilogy" by Smith; books two and three being "The Secret Speech" and "Agent 6", which I have yet to read, but have just ordered.

"Child 44" was Smith's first novel. Strangely enough, Mendy, he is a member, at age 36, of that "average age 30-40" of westerners "who have no historic context of those times." I was really surprised to discover that he is so relatively young, because I agree with you that most adults of that age seem to be clueless to life and history before 1990.

[Boethius]

Leo's cousin, also a security services agent, was cast as Jewish--that was intriguing as few Jews were allowed into those ranks without really good connections. Other than the actors features, it wasn't part of the theme, but interesting none the less.

I disagree with this. 

[mendeleyev]

I disagree with this. 

You may be correct, and perhaps that is a misconception on my part. Bo, i would be interested in your other impressions of the film also.

[Boethius]

I haven't seen it, so can't comment.  I'll watch on Netflix over the weekend, perhaps I can get the better half to watch.  Hi has plenty of views on the nostalgia for everything Soviet, BTW. 

[jone]

This movie just moved up to the top of my watch list. 

Mendy, I'm sure, having children of the age of yours, that you quiz them often on their attitudes regarding the past Soviet and the recent history.  Especially when it enlightens your own perspective.

Last night I sat with my fiancee, over a nice Vietnamese dinner in the industrial city of Chelyabinsk.  I asked her many questions about how her family survived the war, what her thoughts were about the gulags and whether her background includes teachings of the shortcomings of Soviet society. 

Some of her answers were spot on.  They reflected awareness of the systems that killed many people prior and during WWII that were not related to the war.  But when I started trotting out numbers, she could not relate.  It is like the newer generation blows a fuse and the circuit is no longer closed.

She feels that there is a great sadness relating to that time.  But she has no actual relationship to it. 

We will watch the movie together.  She is watching over my shoulder as I write this on the forum.  And she says that her grandmother and her grandmother's mother would not talk about these things.  It was a scary time to be alive.

But one thing she does say.  She wants our children to grow up in America.  The likelihood of a gulag system happening there is remote.

[mendeleyev]

Jone, I understand that short circuit process. It was Stalin himself who said, "One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."