Enkeli

(JAKSO ELOKUVASTA/SEGMENT FROM THE FILM: NACHALO NEVEDOMOGO VEKA/BEGINNING OF AN UNKNOWN ERA)

NEUVOSTOLIITTO/SOVIET UNION 1967

Ohjaus/Director: Andrei Smirnov
Käsikirjoitus/Screenplay: Ilya Suslov, Mikhail Suslov, Boris Yermolajev, Yuri Olesha
Kuvaus/Cinematography: Pavel Lebeshev
Leikkaus/Editor: G. Baranova, Ljubov Butuzova
Lavastus/Set Design: Vladimir Korovin
Ääni/Sound: Roman Berz
Musiikki/Music: Alfred Schnittke
Näyttelijät/Cast: Leonid Kulagin, Sergei Volf, Georgi Burkov, Nikolai Gubenko, Ljudmila Poljakova, Tatyana Belikova, Igor Klass, Vladimir Balon, Viktor Kosuh, V. Sergejev, Viktor Pomortsev
Tuotanto/Production: Mosfilm, Dovzhenko Film Studios, Experimental’naya Tvorcheskaya Kinostudiya
Tuottaja/Producer: Grigori Chukhrai
Kieli/Language: venäjä/Russian
Kesto/Duration: 35 min.


Angel is an uncompromisingly alternative depiction of the Russian civil war and belongs to the Soviet revolutionary genre. It is cruel, short, efficient and highly cynical even according to 1960s standards. The young Andrei Smirnov uses images, sound and the stunning score by Alfred Schnittke in an exceptionally mature way. His sense of cast and drama are spot on. Angel does not hold out much hope for the better world that so many Soviet films romanticised about since the end of the civil war. Smirnov’s attention-commanding debut is quite unique, and has influenced many other directors - but only 21 years later when censors finally released it for distribution! At the time it was revealed that Angel was filmed near the Finnish border in Karelia.

The film is based on a short story by controversial author Juri Olesha. A group of people are travelling by train through no-man’s land between the Red and White Russian’s frontlines - until the locomotive comes to a halt in White Russian territory. Political tensions come to a head, fear takes hold and disaster is just waiting to happen. Among the group is an idealistic but stiff Bolshevik commissar; the rest of the group are an odd hodgepodge of humanity caught up in the war - intellectuals, workers, soldiers, crooks and peasants. The angel itself makes an appearance towards the end of the film in the form of a preacher, fired with brimstone and hate, who has his own way of executing Red prisoners: “I am the Angel, the Angel of the Lord, dost thou not know me?... I shall smite thee all down...close thy eyes, fucking scoundrel...behold the scythe and hammer!” (PS)