Dear Comrades

Yet again, I’m singing the praises of a foreign film I would never have seen if it weren’t for the magic of mubi.com “Dear Comrades” is in black and white, a record of a real life Russian rebellion in 1962, which was brutally put down by the regime. No news there.

Except that what makes his different is that it’s seen through the eyes of a loyal party official, a tough believer in the russian stae who mournes th passing of Stalin and wants to believe in the old certainties. As the film unfolds, she grasps just how destructive the old certainties can be, especially when her daughter is missing after attending a demonstration. It’s a tough learning process, watching her being forced to question her previous beliefs.

But this isn’t just history. It’s about 1962, but it was made in 2022, so it’s hard to miss the unspoken parallels, the damage that’s currently being done by a tough regime whch is sure it has all the answers, and doesn’t want is people to have the freedom to question how things are run. How this got to be made in today’s Russia is a mystery, bu I’m really glad it did.