Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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The Commissar of the title, played by Nonna Mordyukova, is a Soviet functionary wielding power over a remote Jewish village. Neither she nor the villagers care for the status quo, but over a period of several weeks both come to accept the situation and to establish a detente. The film's pro-Semitism was not entirely in keeping with Soviet policy of the 1960s, thus the film was shelved and hidden from the general public. Only with the thawing of East-West relationships, and the political upheaval in Russia itself, was The Commissar deemed "safe" for general consumption. The film was finally distributed in 1988, twenty years after its completion.

Synopsis by Hal Erickson, Allmovie.com

The history of how Alexander Askoldov’s 1967 film The Commissar took 20 years to see the light of day is a fascinating one. Not only was the film banned and confiscated by the censors, but the director was expelled from the Communist Party for “slandering the revolution” and even prosecuted for “squandering state funds” by making it. Askoldov consequently never made another film, but petitioned relentlessly for The Commissar to be released. It was only by this personal insistence by the director that the film was recovered and restored by Mosfilm in 1988 and screened at the West Berlin Film Festival, where it was awarded the Silver Bear. You might suspect that the high acclaim for a film once banned by the Communist authorities in a city still divided by the Wall might have been more for political motivations rather than for artistic merit - and indeed it may well have been to some extent – but The Commissar has a strong humanist message that extends beyond its Russian Civil War setting in the nineteen-twenties, its banning by the Communist authorities in the sixties and its rehabilitation in the eighties, and the film still strikes a powerful chord today.

Set in 1920, during the Russian Civil War, the Red Army under the control of Commissar Varilova (Nonna Mordyukova), have just taken the little town of Berdichev. A female officer, Varilova’s pregnancy is starting to become noticeable, so the authorities decide that they have to discreetly deal with the matter and put her into the care of a Jewish family in the town. With a mother, a wife and six children to provide for, the last thing Yefim Magazannik (Rolan Bykov) needs is another person to look after, much less a pregnant woman who is soon going to have a child of her own. It’s not a situation that the Varilova would choose either, the Commissar clearly finding it difficult to come to terms with a condition that prevents her carrying out her duties in the army. As Yefim’s wife Maria (Raisa Nedashkovskaya) prepares her for what lies ahead however, it would seem that fighting a war would have been the easier option. The matter is further complicated however by the changing tide of the war, the White Army making advances and threatening to regain the town. The precariousness of the situation holds great risks for the Red Army Commissar and for the Jewish family housing her, but also causes Varilova a great deal of personal conflict.

As the subject matter indicates, The Commissar is an uncommon film, setting up a unique situation where a female officer, pregnant out of wedlock (the father having been killed in action), has to live with a Jewish family, where she discovers that the ideology she believes in has little relation with the way most people live their lives. It doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture of the glorious revolution and you can see why the Communist authorities wouldn’t have been too happy with it. Just as uncommon and still less likely to please the authorities, is the extraordinary manner in which Askoldov depicts the Commissar’s interior conflict with lyrical and cinematographic flourishes. Varilova’s childbirth sequence is metaphorically played out on a battlefield and there are other astonishing sequences of a wedding party rushing through the streets, the powerful presence of horses, and most controversially, an ominous premonition of the holocaust - all of which evoke deep personal fears, desires and conflicts beyond the surface. Some might find these sequences a little too poetic and elaborate, but their underlying force and meaning is effectively and sensitively conveyed – no more so than in one apparently innocent game played by the children that suggests something much more sinister.

The authorities who banned the film criticised what they saw as the “pro-Zionist” message that such strong sequences put across, but one suspects that they were far more concerned about the suggestion in The Commissar that there could be any conflict of interest between the ideology of Communism and the practicalities of ordinary people simply trying to live. For Varilova, it’s a complex matter, compounded all the more by the nature of her being a woman, a mother and a Red Army officer. Askoldov depicts this conflict with brilliance and sensitivity, fully understanding and clearly presenting the deep humane issues that arise out of the situation. That message is that somewhere along the line in the quest for ideological correctness the real needs of people have been lost or forgotten, and the ultimate consequence of such a disregard for life is too dark to contemplate.

Review by Noel Megahey, Film.TheDigitalFix.com

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Комиссар / The Commissar / Komissar (1967) [DVD9 + DVD5]

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Special Features:

Disk 1
V. Grossman Biography
Filmographies
Photo Gallery
Stills from the film

Disk 2
Interview with Script Writer and Director A. Askoldov
Interview with Actress R. Nedashkovskaya
The Press, Awards, Letters, Documents about the film
Photo album Recognition