The Commissar

The Commissar is a Russian film based on the short story of Vasily Grossman, "The Town of Berdichev."  It follows the story fairly closely, but draws out some of the implications in a way that did not please the Soviet Union, which suppressed the movie, as it did several books by Grossman.  The film came out in 1988 (during Glasnost) and earned several film awards.  I highly recommend both movie and story.

What is striking about the film is its rich portrayal of family life in a Jewish family in a Ukranian town.  Despite the typical carping and complaining about the kids and life in general, it is obvious that the Jewish family is close and loving.  A communist "Commissar" or leader comes to live with the family temporarily when she finds herself pregnant, and the Jewish mom willingly educates her on all she needs to know about child birth.  Shortly after the baby is born, the "Commissar" abandons him to go back to the communist struggles.

The short story was acceptable to the authorities since it placed "the struggle" over family life.  But Grossman in the story, and definitely the movie, depict the Commissar's conduct ironically.  They show that choosing the "struggle" for a system that turned out to be nothing but violence against "enemies," both external and internal, doesn't compare to the love and harmony of a family.  The film depicts what the system means in practice:  there is a poignant scene in which the kids (imitating the violence around them) perpetrate a pogrom on their bigger sister, and a scene in which the Commissar foresees in a vision the coming holocaust of violence against the Jews.

The film, in my view, shows how life -- and love -- is found in the daily circumstances, the trials and turmoils and momentary joys -- of family life.  This is the soil that humanizes man, not the ideological warfare that poisoned the soviet peoples for decades in the last century.

NY Times Review.

Trailer.