Komissar (1967)

Director:

Aleksandr Askoldov

Writers:

Aleksandr Askoldov
Vasili Grossman (story)

Release Date:

26 August 1988 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Klavdia Vavilova, a Red Army cavalry commissar, is waylaid by an unexpected pregnancy. She stays with...

Plot Keywords:

Red Army | Pregnancy | Birth | Jewish | Jewish Family

Awards:

9 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Nonna Mordyukova	...	Klavdia Vavilova
Rolan Bykov	...	Yefim Mahazannik
Raisa Nedashkovskaya	...	Maria Mahazannik
Lyudmila Volynskaya	...	The Grandmother
Vasili Shukshin	...	The Commandant
Lyubov Kats		(as Lyuba Kats)
Pavel Levin		(as Pavlik Levin)
Dmitri Kleyman		(as Dima Kleyman)
Marta Bratkova
Igor Fishman
Sergey Nikonenko
Otar Koberidze
Viktor Shakhov		(as V. Shakhov)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leonid Reutov		(as L. Reutov)

Directed by
Aleksandr Askoldov

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Aleksandr Askoldov
Vasili Grossman		story "V gorode Berdicheve"

Original Music by
Alfred Schnittke

Cinematography by
Valeri Ginzburg

Film Editing by
Natalya Loginova		(as N. Loginova)
Svetlana Lyashinskaya		(as S. Lyashinskaya)
Nina Vasilyeva		(as V. Isayev)

Production Design by
Sergei Serebrennikov

Costume Design by
Yakov Rivosh

Sound Department
Yevgeni Bazanov	....	sound
Liya Benevolskaya	....	sound
Nikolai Shary	....	sound

Production Companies

• Gorky Film Studios
• Mosfilm

Distributors

• Empresa Hispanoamericana de Video (EHV) (Argentina) (video)
• International Film Exchange (IFEX) (1988) (USA) (subtitled)
• Sovexportfilm (Argentina)

Other Companies

• Kinostudiya "Mosfilm"  production unit

Also Known As:

"The Commissar" - , USA (imdb display title)
"La comisaria" - Argentina, Spain
"A Comissária" - Portugal
"Die Kommissarin" - West Germany
"Komisarz" - Poland
"Komiser" - Turkey (Turkish title)
"Komissaari" - Finland
"Kommisæren" - Denmark (imdb display title)
"La commissaire" - France
"O Comissário" - Portugal (imdb display title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12

Company:

Gorky Film Studios

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A szovjet film 1953-1970 (#1.12)" (1990)

This is cinema

A film on the same echelon as Kilmov's Come And See, Jancsó's The Red and The White, Shepitko's Ascent and the great Russian silents as well as the vanguard 60s cinema. This is one of those films where image and sound form a perfect marriage committing to screen an onslaught of ingenious, uproarious and emotional imagery marred with wonderful sound design and score, all strung together by ingenious editing. This is cinema.

The story is one of a Red Army woman officer during the Russian civil war, who ends up pregnant and is forced to live with a Ukrainian Jewish family, who has been used and abused countless times by the red and the whites. This is a story of humans coming together and setting aside their differences and understanding each other amongst suffering and strife. It is a test of loyalty to one's self, one's family, one's country.

Commissar was banned on its initial completion and writer/director Aleksandr Askoldov was kicked out of the Communist party and not allowed to work in the film business in any form again. It wasn't until 1988 that the ban was lifted and the soundtrack remastered/re-done along with a reconstruction of the picture, which was fairly intact. But not until now has it been wildly available so I really would urge anyone who enjoys Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Tarr or any of the before mentioned films to seek this one out. The US DVD from Kino is probably their best transfer yet; very pristine and sharp with no a lot of dirt or scratches, although it is from a PAL source so there are some ghosting effects on large movements, making the picture look simultaneously in slow mo and normal frame rate