Kholodnoe leto pyatdesyat tretego

For thirty years, Joseph Stalin kept a tight grip on the Soviet Union, imprisoning and murdering millions. After he died, a number of people whom he had imprisoned got released. It turned out that among those were people who had committed violent crimes. Aleksandr Proshkin's "Kholodnoye leto pyatdesyat tretego" ("Cold Summer of 1953" in English) looks at the result of this. When a group of dangerous criminals takes over a rural village, a former political prisoner has to resort to extreme measures.

The movie got released during Mikhail Gorbachev's presidency. It was appropriate that in the period when criticism of its history became part of official Soviet policy, movies like this and "Little Vera" came out. They were finally willing to admit that they had been wrong about so many things. There could be no doubt that Stalin himself was the USSR's biggest criminal of all. Even Lavrentiy Beria, who freed a number of prisoners, organized the Soviet seizure of power in Eastern Europe.

I wouldn't call "Cold Summer of 1953" a masterpiece. At times it seems like an action movie. But it's a good look at this important part of Soviet history.

Grainy stock gives this film an almost documentary feel and has the additional effect of underscoring the dismal state of the trading outpost at which most of the events take place. _The Cold Summer of 1953_ is more authentic and less hysterical than _Gulag_, although it makes the same points with regards the social standing (or, more accurately, the complete lack of social standing) of political prisoners in postwar Russia. Looked down upon by even the most violent of criminals, the two political exiles still maintain a sense of dignity and, to some extent, honour, in the face of their privations.

That's exactly the kind of Russian film I crave for. No propaganda here, not any garbage junk destined to idiotic audiences. It is a dark, gloomy, realistic analysis of the Russian society thru this solid, strong story, pulled by powerful characters. Not destined to wide western countries audiences though, they are not smart enough - I mean the bulk of audiences, not EVERY AUDIENCE. I thought of LEVIATHAN, THE MAJOR, other outstanding features from Russia. OK, it may be slow, but it coincides with the plot set in Siberia. It is not FAST AND FURIOUS either.....The story is really engrossing for intelligent people who are curious enough to discover and watch it.

The movie is not bad, its a good movie which I give 7 points of 10. I must say that the movie is not from 1988, its from 1987. It was the last film of anatolij papanov, while the recording of this movie he died.Papanov is getting big in movie-business since the movie briljantnaja ruka(1969), he played there a criminal man with a special humor personality, It will even nowadays make a parody of his charakter by people like the music group'Krasnaya Plesen'. But 'holodnoje leto 53-go' shows that in the early days it was sometimes so that the real criminals, which killed and stealed people get out and people who were not criminals and made not much wrong had to working as a prisoner.

°°°°°°°°

One of the best Soviet movies. A must see along with reading Solzhenitsyn's books.