S.E.R. - Svoboda eto rai

"Kids are the apple of our eye, but let the apples grow on someone else's trees." So says one jaded adult in this surprisingly candid look inside the erstwhile Soviet Union, where (contrary to external appearances) the iron fist of oppression has not entirely loosened its grip. The title refers to a Cyrillic acronym tattooed on the wrist of a young 'delinquent' who escapes (more than once) from reform school to search for the father he never knew. Except for the slight Oriental cast to his eyes the young hero might be any freckle-faced kid out of Middle America, and his cross-country journey, always one step ahead of capture, turns what could have been a familiar coming-of-age drama into a unique Eastern European road film. The title, in translation, must have also expressed the heartfelt relief of a director allowed to make an honest film portrait of his country, depicted here as a series of smaller cages within the larger prison of the nation itself.

"S.E.R.-Svoboda Eto Rai"/"Freedom is paradise" is an extremely bleak albeit realistic portrayal of the tough life experienced by an inmate belonging to a reform school for juvenile delinquents. Tadpoles is the name given by school authorities to young offenders whose criminal parents are also holed up in different Russian prisons. It is in such an extremely biased and hostile environment that an ingenious boy Sasha Grigoriyev undertakes an arduous journey in order to meet his father who is lodged in a faraway prison. Freedom is paradise made its appearance in 1989, a year when all the world's eyes were set on former USSR as general secretary of Russian communist party Mr.Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated "Glasnost" and "Perestroika"-two political policies which aimed at more "openness" in Russian society. It was in such a highly politically charged environment that Sergei Bodrov chose to depict the plight of Russia's undesirable, unloved and unwanted children-young delinquents about which nobody cared as they were viewed by all and sundry as a burden for civilized society in former Soviet Union. Mr.Sergei Bodrov's film is able to engage viewers as it takes into account different kinds of human sufferings. This is one reason why he did not neglect the portrayal of the suffering experienced by Sasha's father-an unfortunate man who has been deprived of his right of parenting on some flimsy grounds. However, it is Sasha's journey to see his unknown father which is viewed as this film's most crucial element which manages to have a firm grip of viewers' attention. This effect is achieved aesthetically as Mr.Sergei Bodrov gives his film a unique feel of documentary as well as feature film elements. It is precisely this 'eye for details' which enables viewers to empathize with all the problems which Sasha experiences in order to embrace his father. Lastly, a word of advice to viewers-in many ways, Freedom is paradise can be put into the same category of films which dealt with young criminals namely Los Olvidados, Pixote etc but this film emerges as a different film as it conveys its message while being entertaining for all.

I'd heard a lot about this film when it won the Montreal Film Festival back in 1989, but only recently had opportunity to see it.

It doesn't provide any answers to the problem of how to handle so many lost children in the former Soviet union and although "entertaining" in its own right, it feels more documentary then story.

Young Sasha is immediately likable, obviously a smart kid and would seeming be wanted by anyone looking to adopt a child - in Western culture. But back in the USSR, he's shuffled off "through the system" and maintained in prison-like schools. Sasha toughens himself, commits petty crimes and takes his beatings without complaint, to prove he's a man, but the strength of this film is showing not this boy's resolve, but rather peel away to reveal a boy's sensitivity and a desire to just be a child for the few years allowed. All of this leads him to (repeated) escapes from the "school" in search of his father - a man whom he's never met.

That their brief "reunion" comes late, ends at a prison and is ineffably awkward makes its poignancy all the stronger. We learn things about Sasha's father that show the futility of that system and the toll it took - and takes - on generations of innocents forced to make their way by any means of survival possible regardless of outcome.

A tough film to watch, despite its downbeat ending, one wants to believe something better is in store for Sasha. Until grim reality sets in.