Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Oleg Menshikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Nadezhad Mikhalkova, Andre Oumansky, Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Written by Rustam Ibragimbekov & Nikita Mikhalkov,
from a story by Nikita Mikhalkov
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 135 minutes
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
The winner of 1994's Grand Jury prize at Cannes, and the following year's Best Foreign Film Oscar, Burnt By The Sun gets a very welcome re-release on DVD this week. Depressingly, 14 years after its initial release and 72 years after it's set, the film's themes and politics are still alarmingly relevant.
Remarkably, some 14 years after I first saw it, the climax was still burned into my mind — and it's even more harrowing and heart-breaking second time around. It's set in Russia in 1936, some 19 years after the Communist Revolution.
Colonely Sergei Petrovich Kotov (Mikhalkov, who also directs) was hero of the Revolution and has enjoyed his status as such. He's married to a young woman Marusia (Dapkunaite), devoted to his six-year old daughter Nadya (Mikhalkov's own daughter, Nadezhda) and enjoying a long summer at his dacha. And then, into this idyllic, warm and fuzzy existence comes Dimitri (Menshikov). He's an old flame of Marusia's, a former exile who's current occupation is a mystery. That is gradually hinted at and revealed, as Dimitri's presence brings up secrets and petty jealousises between Kotov and his wife, before the highly inconvenient truth is revealed.
To reveal much more would probably give things away, and undermine the power of Kotov's final realisation that past acclaim is no guarantee of security in Stalinist Russia. Suffice to say then that Mikhalkov's film — the first anti-Stalin film to come out of post-Communist Russia — still holds enormous power and proves that its various awards were for genuine reasons rather than politically correct back patting. According to IMDb.com, the director is now working on a sequel and this re-release is a reminder how eagerly we should be anticipating that feature.
EXTRAS None at all but, given the age of the film and the fact that a sequel is coming, that's easily forgiveable in this instance.