Zavtra Byla Voyna (Tomorrow was the War). Directed by Yuriy Kara. 1987 89 minutes. 10/10
Set in Stalinist Russia in 1940 and based on a novel by Brois Vailiev. The story centers around a grade 9 class of students, but these students are older than our year 9 students, they look like year 12 students. The three main characters are girls in the class, the flirtatious Zina (Natalya Negoda), the serious Iskra (Irina Cherichenko) and the tragic Vika (Yuliya Tarkhova).
The story delves into the struggles of Iskra and Vika to reconcile their personal quest for freedom of expression and truth against the harsh backdrop of conformity to Stalin and the state as best exemplified by their teacher and Iskra's mother. Vika invites friends to her house and reads a poem from a decadent poet. An ideological conflict arises when Vika's father (Lyuberetsky) extols the virtues of freedom of expression to the girls and a few other members of the class. News of this soon reaches their teacher and Iskra's mother and he is soon denounced as an enemy of the state. The secret police come calling at midnight and he is taken away. It is never revealed who it was that denounced the father, and it doesn't even matter, as there are weighty themes the movie explores.
Worse is to come. At school the teacher denounces Vika, and demands she be expelled. She also demands that Iskra show her loyalty to the motherland, by being the one to denounce her friend. This is something Iskra refuses to do, despite mounting pressure on her in school, and from her own mother. The film is to be commended for showing the nuances involved, and the performance of Cherichenko in the key role of Iskra is nothing short of riveting, as we are left wondering from moment to moment whether she follow the examples of her mother and teacher and denounce her friends, or stand for what she believes in and follow the example of her principal, who is dismissed from his post for not toeing the party line.
There are no heavy interrogation scenes with faceless people representing the state. Images of Stalin are fleeting, his presence is felt more through association via Iskra's totalitarian mother and the demagoguery represented by her teacher, but it is always there lurking in the background. The dilemma faced by Iskra and the other students is weighty, and developed subtly, as we witness the struggle involved in the emergence of character, but it is character that emerges at a great cost and not without considerable pain along the way. A thoughtful and evocative movie with assured direction throughout and a wonderful soundtrack, it is a movie that will continue to reward with multiple viewings.
