If This is How You Treat Comrades...
"Dear Comrades!," Russia's entry for the Best International Feature Film of 2020, is a dramatization of an unbelievable event that occurred under Krushchev, in Russia, in 1962 and was subsequently covered up by the government. The film took the Special Jury Prize at the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
The incident, now known as the Novocherkassk Massacre, concerns a group of factory workers at a locomotive plant who went on strike. From what the event is called, it's not that hard to imagine what transpired.
"Dear Comrades!" takes place during the three days of the strike and its aftermath. It's directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and stars his wife, Julia Vysotskaya as Lyuda, a divorcee who is a committed member of the Communist Party. She's unhappy with the direction the party has taken, preferring the days of Stalin.
The factory strike takes place where Lyuda's teenage daughter Sveta (Julia Burova) works. Lyuda is with a group of co-workers who go to the factory to investigate. After a short while, the workers storm the building where Lyuda and her co-workers are watching. They are forced to flee through the basement.
The square outside the factory grows to include all of the workers until KGB agents start shooting into the crowd. Many are killed and injured. The government isn't very concerned about what has happened. They only care about trying to block news of the massacre from becoming public knowledge.
The survivors and witnesses are forced to sign paperwork that stipulates that if they even mention what has happened, they will be executed. Against this background, Lyuda searches frantically for her daughter. She enlists Viktor (Andrei Gusev), a KGB captain, to help find her.
"Dear Comrades!" most certainly concerns an event worth showcasing, and Konchalovsky does an excellent job in presenting it. Filming it in black-and-white gives it a look of almost being a documentary, which helps add a feeling of realism. It's an all-around good film, but never rises to a greatness that I can't help but feel would be possible with this story.
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