Bouge pas, meurs, ressuscite

"Zamri, umri, vokresni!" is not, at first sight, a positive movie. And, as it develops, the tone gets darker. Vitali Kanevsky, the director, makes a very good use of black-and-white film. The lives of Galia and Valerka get increasingly unbearable. They make it bearable, however, by making easy bantering between them about which one's tea is better as they sell them to the people. Little things like that. In all the misery that he lives in, Valerka's main goal is still to catch a robber who stole his skates. They have not lost their childhood, not yet. Not until the end. It is interesting to note that "Zamri, umri, vokresni!" is also the name of a children's game in Russia. It means, literally, "Freeze, Die, Rise!"

Freeze, Die, Come to Life is the harrowing story of two adolescents, Velarka (Pavel Nazarov) and Galicia (Dinara Drukarova) attempt to cope with poverty and an unstable home life in a Soviet mining town in Siberia near the close of World War II. This was the first film by Russian director, Vitaly Kanevsky, who served eight years in a Soviet labor camp.

Though the title is the name of a Russian children's game, the children here are not playing any games; the stakes are too high. Velarka's mother is a prostitute and the family is poor. Both he and Galicia must sell tea to workers, convicts, and local Japanese POWs in order to survive. Their relationship starts out as antagonistic but they slowly develop a friendship and grudging admiration for each other.

Left to fend for himself, Valerka gets into serious misadventures such as putting yeast in a school sewer causing an overflow onto the city streets, derailing a train, and helping to rob a jewelry store. He must keep running to avoid the police and pursuing jewel thieves. Though the film is bleak, the sensitive relationship of the children and the courage they display is what will stay with you. The ending is grisly but (anticipating Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry by eight years) the cameraman giving directions to the actors reminds us that "it's also a movie".

Freeze, Die, Come to Life was turned down by Russian censors and had to be edited several times before it was approved, giving it a somewhat disjointed feeling. In its final version, however, it won the 1990 Cannes Film Festival's prize for Best First Film. Unfortunately, it received scant distribution in the West and has become an overlooked gem.

Very interesting look into stark Soviet history, in the time of Gulags and "work settlements," as told through the eyes of children who live there.

In between the squalid conditions, flowers of humanity sprout out, in the form of friendship and ill-appreciated loyalties. This is a tale of understanding what life may or must have been like in such settlements. It strikes a chord with those who can or try to understand such environments. The analogies are quite interesting, as they are critical. (Take the scene for instance, of the parade through the sewage around the school, while hoisting Stalin's portrait on high.)

While not as other Russian imports (VOR/THE THIEF, BURNT BY THE SUN or the French-Russian film, THE EAST), ZAMRI, UMRI, VOSKRESNI! has a message and a decent story to tell.

Recommended.

Don't come to this expecting much in the way of a plot; it's a bunch of interconnected anecdotes about a boy living in a stark Siberian mining town. Apparently it's semi-autobiographical & filmed on a minuscule budget. Some online reviews claim the boy's mother is a prostitute (I thought her reference to that was metaphorical). The filmmaker certainly doesn't give much context away, but even without understanding much about Stalinist Siberia or knowing exactly what is meant by living in "the zone", for me the film conveys at once the frustration of living in exile with a child's failure to understand. Similarly, in his interaction with his caring older (girl) friend, the young protagonist conveys the often-heartless behavior of younger children. The actors are supposedly non-professionals; they do an excellent job. And the b&w photography is beautifully evocative. My only quibble is the "it's only a movie" ending.

The unusual title (never explained) is supposedly the name of a popular Russian children's game, but the only contest being waged in this remote town on the far eastern edge of Soviet Asia is called survival, and it's clear there aren't too many winners. One of the more exciting Soviet imports in quite a while is also one of the more depressing films ever made, presenting a tough and totally unsentimental depiction of childhood as seen through the eyes of a rebellious schoolboy and the level-headed young girl with whom he develops an antagonistic friendship. There's a strong documentary flavor to the episodic storyline and grainy black and white photography, and writer director Vitaly Kanevsky devotes equal time to the conditions which shape their fate (note the subtle but unmistakable condemnation of Stalinism recurring throughout). In effect the film is more of a mood piece, with the environment itself (ice, mud and manure) becoming the primary character. It's not always an easy film to watch or understand, but the effort can make it a rewarding experience.