Svolochi

There is an absolutely fabulous Foreign Action, Drama, War Movie put out by the Russian film industry called " Svolochi " or " Bastards " as the English translation goes. " Svolochi " or " Bastards " is a current 2006 release directed by Aleksandr Atanesyan -- clearly, Atanesyan will be a name to remember. With excellent cinematography by Dmitriy Youshenkov, " Svolochi " features a cast of young stars portraying the young " Bastards " who range in ages from 12 to 17 and who have come from dysfunctional backgrounds, raised themselves from the gutters and learned the craft in the world of crime, murder, and mayhem. They have been caught by the police and are sent to a secret desolate military training base run by Nachalnik Vishnevskiy, convincingly portrayed by Andrei Panin. Vishnevskiy is a Russian military commandant trained to do covert activities -- and a man who has little to live for in the sense that he has lost his wife and child and has little else to live for. Here in their desolate lair, Vishnevskiy and his staff of military experts train the boys to work with explosives, scale rocky crests and cliffs, and handle military weapons -- but they know all too well how to handle weapons already. And as the boys continue to abuse each other with their own deceptive and conniving ways, Vishnevskiy and his men develop a respect if not bond with and for the young boys. As first one, and then another of the young ones are killed in accidents and murder, the boys decide it is nearing their time to break away from their military confines. But all too late come their plans as Vishnevskiy is given his orders to prepare the first group for their mission. The movie poignantly and superbly unfolds to reveal a climactic conclusion that staggers the mind with the possibility of reality and the hellish ordeal the " Bastards" must face -- making the " Svolochi " a new must see future classic of Russian films -- absolutely, moving, eloquent, and superbly crafted.

In the process of watching this "war drama" you feel like vomiting - so bad is the movie. Boring, embarrassing, dull, made by people with a total absence of talent. Moreover, the movie is totally embarrassing for our country and our people. Millions of soviet people died during the WWII, and now those, who survived and won can do absolutely nothing to a fact, that they, their battle comrades, the whole nation - all is mixed with sh*t. Why do we make such movies? Is there nothing about the war to be filmed? There are lots of stories to be told, lots of heroes to be shown. Why inventing a story, that has never happened? Damn this movie!!

Recently I have noticed that the Russians began to make very good movies – and Svolochi is for sure one of them. The action is really moving – while the viewer has a choice - to sympathize with the young criminals who seemed doomed to die or to look at them from a different perspective. Some of the boys were caught for committing crimes such as murders and they were given a chance between death and training in a military preparing them for risky missions behind the enemy lines. The movie does not do very good on the realistic scale but still seeing it is worth it as it has some quite emotional moments and the acting was pretty decent.

In "socialist" times Russian films were always and everywhere, with very few Western films shown, thus, in recent decades, I have not felt any particular urge to (re)watch Russian films, especially post-Soviet ones. But we all have our weaknesses and curiosities :) plus incidents happen...

Svolochi is meant to be a historical film, about WWII in the rear area far away from actual battles (somewhere in Kazakshtan), but it has turned out that it is all pure fiction - presented not very convincingly, with the exception of Russian crime scene and obscene language perhaps (not accurately translated into English). Reactions to the boys' behaviour and language by military personnel are odd, if not more, and adult military characters are atypical to the Stalin era - they seem hesitant, weak, speaking mostly gently, and the actors performing them are not front-rank... The ending dating back to 1943 is hectic and airy-fairy, and the very ending is quite ridiculous, taking into account modern opportunities in finding former acquaintances.

The film is "saved" by two good performances - Alexander Golovin as Kot and Sergey Rychakov as Tjapa; they squeeze the best/most out of this inconsistent story and focusing on their chemistry enables to wend your way through this 1.5 hour film without wtf! attitudes. But still, Svolochi is not a film you definitely must see, particularly if you have some knowledge of Russian values and language.

I watched the film having in mind well known facts how Stalin and his commanders treated people and soldiers in particular. What seems unbelievable to reviewers, i.e. the option granted to the kids by the government: "go on to get killed or we shall kill you", was in fact a common practice in the Soviet Army (and in the political system as the whole) KGB troops that followed soldiers on the battle field during hopeless attacks, only to kill each soldier who would try to withdraw, go slower than ordered, dodge the bullets etc. (and soldiers were aware of that!) was a regular scenario of many, then famous, battles for which Stalin's generals were decorated with kilograms of medals! In this film the difference lies only in that the "choice" was given to kids rather than to men who were forced to serve in the army, after all. Of course, I am talking about the core of the situation portrayed in the film and not arguing that whole plot from start to end is in each detail totally believable.

I am surprised to find so many reviewers who firmly state that the Soviets could not use children in this way. From the military point of view it is not necessarily unbelievable: just study the history of antifascist underground armies in Poland and elsewhere, where kids (with their innocent look and presumable lack of skills) occurred clever enough to vitally help many sabotage actions, and you'll find how naive some presumptions presented here may occur.

I am perplexed to read that the Stalin's regime was not that bad as it may seem based on this movie. Gulags, KGB secret actions, great starvation of the 30s that took 30 mln lives only to silent and eliminate a population of people who were resisting the regime and were not submissive enough to allow Stalin to get them deprived of their own land (farms) and many more facts are unknown, have been forgotten or are we witnessing a kind of common amnesia? A concept much more believable to me would be that the whole advertising noise about the movie was well scheduled only to invoke a "reverse reaction", i.e. "public" claim in Russia and particularly in the free world that "Stalin was not that bad". Too twisted or too clever? No, oppressive regimes have always been more clever than systems based on civilized standards. I hope we'll not be forced to try and experience whether this statement is true or not.

As a former tutor in a correction house for juvenile criminals I find the movie psychologically very believable. I liked that the film showed a human dimension of people in a totally inhuman world. Professional features of the movie did not, in my opinion, give raise to any serious criticism and I found some scenes done perfectly. It's definitely not a movie for people whose perception was shaped and is embedded in today's Hollywood standards. Thanks for your attention and patience (if any) to read my review until the last dot.