MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Film round-up
Van Connor and Maria Duarte review Dear Comrades!, Blithe Spirit, Outside the Wire, Stardust, and Imperial Blue
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
Dear Comrades!
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
★★★★
RUSSIAN film-maker Andrei Konchalovsky’s historical drama takes a meticulous and commanding look at one of the Soviet Union’s darkest chapters: the Novocherkassk massacre of 1962, in which more than 25 unarmed people were reportedly killed, and more than 85 injured, by Soviet troops.
Russia’s official entry to this years Academy Awards explores the carnage and the following cover up — decades-long, as it transpires — through the eyes of a devout party activist Lyuda (played superbly by Konchalovsky’s wife Julia Vysotskaya, born in Novocherkassk) who only begins to question her blind patriotism and loyalty when her own family becomes involved.
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