Based on the novel "The White Guard" by Mikhail Bulgakov. Set in Ukraine in late 1918, amid civil war and frequent changes in power, this partly autobiographical story centers around the Turbin family who live in Kiev and their circle of friends, who are all caught in the turmoil while trying to make sense of it and preserve their traditional lifestyle.
Having read the novel and watched other older films linked to it, in my view, this TV series has some strengths and many weaknesses. For instance, I found the main characters, the Turbin family itself, difficult to sympathise with at times. Khabensky is a good actor, and yet, most of the film I was thinking "there is Khabensky, looking too old for Dr. Turbin; now Khabensky is dressed as a military officer" and so on. Ksenya Rappoport is sometimes convincing as his sister Elena, sometimes "too modern". Nikolka is plain naive and miraculously recovers, unscathed, from a cannon blast. Some of the secondary characters play their roles extremely well. Aleksey Serebryakov is splendid and moving playing Nay-Turs. But Janina Studilina is thoroughly unconvincing as Anyuta... Some scenes are very moving, because of the contents and because of the way they are played. Other scenes showed the acting a bit too much, like most of the crying scenes, which look plain bad.
Lots of attention paid to detail, interior decoration, light and so forth, very well done.
I do not have a right to discuss the overall political messages in this film, who is treated fairly and who unfairly, antisemitism and so on. I do not want to enter into a debate or start one. I have witnessed nationalism, repression of nationalism, discrimination, etc. in several countries, including in Ukraine itself. Whatever Bulgakov meant to say is there, in the novel he wrote, for all to read and interpret as best we can.
So, I prefer to comment on the sheer genius of Bulgakov, who is able to depict, in a convincing way and in a way that still resonates almost a century later, what these people went through in Kiev following WWI, the attempts to build an independent Ukraine, civil war, the Russian Revolution, etc. Bulgakov's work is a brilliant depiction of how historical events shaped and sometimes destroyed people's lives, how wars swept away values, whole families, personal efforts and achievements.
Since much of this is well reflected in the film, I conclude that it is a film worth watching, despite its many flaws.
