RFW 2019: A Russian Youth

The First World War was a tragedy that launched a series of hardships for the Russian people: revolution, civil war, famine, political repression, the Second World War. All these fell on one generation of people. What courage and patience those people must have had in order to survive all the upheavals of the 20th century? What was their character like? What must they have been thinking and feeling?

These questions are asked by the authors of the film “A Russian Youth”. It tells the story of a simple village boy who goes to the front of the First World War with a naive youthful dream of fame and medals. In the first battle he loses his sight. He is left to serve as a listener – he must listen carefully through huge metal funnels and raise an alarm in case enemy airplanes’ approach. Back then the basis of the Russian Empire’s army was made up of peasants and the working class – people with a characteristic appearance, who lived lives of hard physical labour.

Many non-professional actors in the film were found on the streets, in factories, among the cadets of military schools, and in orphanages – the film features the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, who created the Third piano Concerto op.30 in 1909. With the power and energy of this piece, the composer predicted the coming upheavals of the 20th century. One can hear Rachmaninoff’s premonition about the fate of the people in the lyrical shrill melody. Three decades later, at the beginning of the Second World War, Rachmaninoff will create “Symphonic dances” op.45, an even more grand and vigorous work, after which he no longer wrote.

Genre: Drama, war, historical

Director: Alexander Zolotukhin

Cast: Mikhail Buturlov, Filipp Dyachkov, Sergey Goncharenko

Russia, 2019

In Russian with English subtitles.

Q&A session with director Alexander Zolotukhin.