Original subtitles

With financial support from the Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation

February 29 Film Company

Red Arrow Film Company

A film by Aleksey Fedorchenko

Angels of Revolution

Raccoons! Raccoons!

Will somebody please get the little raccoons?

Here we are!

Good morning, raccoons! You big-nosed fat-cheeked little monsters!

Raccoons, you are sweet. Raccoons, you have snowy feet.

Get the hamster, you enemy spawn.

The hamster is lost!

Get the big-head boar through the door!

We will bite the boar.

Please, get the prettiest ewe lamb with a wet nose!

The ewe is at her mother's funeral.

Get the creepy little snake!

The snake has frostbite on his tummy, he is moaning.

Dear raccoons, please give back what you stuffed under the rug!

It's cold, don't knock anymore,

we won't come out!

We're rehearsing; you're interrupting…

what is this… come on…

calm down…

The film is based on actual events.

Starring:

Darya Ekamasova, Oleg Yagodin

Pavel Basov, Georgiy lobadze

Konstantin Balakirev, Alexey Solonchyov

Also featuring

Polina

Your mandate, please.

I'm here to see the commissar. He was looking for me.

You are alive!

We died a long time ago,

and now we have come for you!

Great, next please…

The banner say: People's Commissariat of Ethnicities

Excellent…

The Udmurts were given autonomy

To revive their own way of life

The oppressors of people are gone Who didn't let…

Come in, please.

… didn't let the Udmurts live. Did you get that?

The next stanza.

The Chuvash were given autonomy

And the Permyaks and Tatars and Mari

Every ethnicity has autonomy

So they can burn bright and merry

Set up to kill a bear?

A moose.

Hello, Polina!

I'm so glad you have come!

It's pretty here,

flowers and all.

A pelargonium.

The same as geranium,

but say it aloud –

pelargonium…

And you will see Russian cities in a completely new light.

Why are you wearing this?

We're studying Oceania, too.

Just in case. It is a world revolution.

It's great that you have come.

The republic needs you again.

You have to go

to Lake Num-To. Up north.

Where's the map? It's very important.

Here.

Khanty and Nenets live there.

Strange people!

We built schools and hospitals for them in the middle of the Kazym taiga.

Excuse me.

They don't want to have normal medical treatment.

They don't take their sick to the hospital,

they die in their tents.

Most importantly, they don't let us fish on Lake Num-to.

Their head goddess – the Kazym goddess,

Kasum-imi, - lives there, on an island.

All the riches – the furs, the fish – belong to her…

What does it have to do with me?

You have to make them friends with Soviet authority.

The Khanty and Nenets are actually very good people,

but afraid of everything.

They took their kids from the school

so they won't turn into Russians.

They listen only to their shaitans, their shamans.

You're the only one who can do this!

I stopped doing that a long time ago.

Take our best soldiers!

I'll write you a mandate.

Take anyone you want!

We can't do without you.

I know you resolve

the most complicated issues.

Forget old grudges.

I've heard about your feats.

Your father would be proud!

Crimea. 1908.

Polina, the guests are waiting!

Birthday girl!

Where are you?

Felimone Cooper.

The Last of the Mohicans. Fragment.

1916. YOUNG POLINA SAVED THE LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS.

Polina Schneider, daughter of prominent southern Russian cheese maker.

She stole the secret for making healing kefir from Karachay Prince Bek-Murza.

1919. ARMORED TRAIN “POLINA – REVOLUTION”.

Before the battle for Lugansk, the Soviet of Soldier Deputies ruled:

to rename the armored «3rd Bryansk» train

in honour of its heroic commander, Comrade P. Schneider.

1920. THE RED IRAN. THE PERSIAN SOVIET REPUBLIC IS PROCLAIMED.

Polina gave guarantees to Kuchek-khan on behalf of the Soviet government.

There will be no interference in internal affairs of the young republic.

1921. THE CELESTIAL WARRIORS OF THE RED ARMY.

Polina-Revolution campaigned in a Buddhist monastery near Mongolia.

48 monks volunteered to join the Red Army.

Yekaterinburg. 1922

Hey, comrade…

Ivan

I'm not going with you.

Times have changed.

I don't want to hold a gun. I want to hold a conductor's baton.

I'm a composer! I write music.

Symphonies for steam engine whistles,

cantatas for air raid sirens,

arias for factories and plants!

Are there any factories in Kazym?

It has its own instruments.

Like what? Sangkvyltaps? Tambourines? Jaw harps?

What a joke!

These sounds will die with savagery of indigenes!

Look!

Look, and you'll understand!

Baku. The anniversary of the Great Revolution.

All ships of Military Fleet and Uzbek Caspian Fleet come to the railway dock.

Even small steam launchers.

All free steam engines and 3 armored trainks are brought to the dock.

On the square in front of the customs warehouses

– all students of the Higher Party School,

all students of the State Academy of Music and professional musicians.

The infantry, artillery, armored cars and vehicles take positions.

I am on the tower with hand flags.

1st salute shot from the docks.

Zykh, Bely Gorod, Bibi-Eibat and Bailov join with alarm blasts.

At the 2nd cannon – districts 1 and 2 of Cherny Gorod.

At the 3rd – the sirens of Goods Management, Azerbaijan Oil and the docks.

The 4th cannon – the city district…

The 5th cannon… 4 units of commander school… led by military brass band…

…leave the square and head for the wharf to the Warsawian song.

The alarm sounds reach their maximum and stop at the 10th cannon.

A pause!

Then a triple chord of the sirens. A “hurrah” from the wharf.

The “Internationale”, 4 times.

Then a joint solemn chord.

All blasts and sirens of the city accompanied by the chiming of bells.

And the sirens of the 4th squadron of hydroplanes!

I don't need a gun,

I'll be the People's Commissar of Music of the USSR!

Pyotr

Stitching hoops. -The dachshund.

Eagle wings.

The shepherd.

The Maltese lap dog?

Right!

Here's another one.

The pug.

We need more.

Will these work?

The dogs!

Let's go!

Here comes Zhuzhu.

The banner!

The banners drop down!

The banners say: WE'RE NOT DOGS!

WE DON'T NEED WINGS TO FLY!

WE HAVE DIRIGIBLES!

The dirigible!

And cut!

Cut!

Take the dirigible to the warehouse!

Feed the dogs,

the wings go to the costume crew!

Fedya, don't fall!

The dogs can get 2 pints of milk in the cafeteria.

Is Ivan going?

He says he can't shoot with a conductor's baton.

Who needs to shoot?

The Khanty need culture.

Cinema, music, theatre.

Only art can domesticate them under Soviet power.

Beauty is above ideas.

Mexico. 1931

Cut…

Cut!

Cut!

I refuse to film the execution scene.

It's ridiculous. Nonsense!

Don Pedro!

Why film fake heads?

I will give you real ones. Three deserters.

Yesterday the court martial sentenced them to death by firing squad.

They have to die anyway,

why not serve high art.

Cut…

The banner say: People's Comissariat for Internal Affairs

Zakhar

Birnbaum, Dorine

Glass, Barbara

Engler, Steffi

Lenz, Uta

Richter, Monica

Koch, Dorota

Wessau, Irma…

Polina Schneider?

Never, we only worked together!

Schmetterling, Anya.

Your daughter

maiden Schmetterling

is the one I will actually marry.

Believe me – she is the last of my German love affairs.

Anya, dear, turn a little – I can't see the honeypot!

Honeypot, right!

Go on with your wedding photo album!

You sadist!

Caligula!

This is photograph number 10

in our brilliant wedding album.

Anya could never explain

why she was so mad at me at that moment.

And more importantly,

why she couldn't just jump down.

Thank you, Mom.

Why she didn't try to at least hit me?

Or leave?

Instead, Anya preferred to swing from the pine,

as if I had tied her to it.

Wiggling her whole body

and cursing bitterly and desperately.

True fury, like true love,

makes you come up with very strange solutions.

Sviyazhsk. 1918

Zakhar,

I found this!

Looks right.

Thank you, Liza.

And you – get undressed.

You will really give me bread?

A soldier's ration.

Comrades!

Today we unveil the monument

to the first theomachist in the world.

He was not scared to go against dark faith.

He defended man's right to structure the world.

Memorial to Comrade Judas Iscariot!

He tragically perished in battle.

We'll never forget him

and resurrect him in eternal stone.

Go ahead!

Our Judas challenges Heaven.

He has nothing to regret or be scared of.

He is among his true brothers – us.

Hail to atheism and art!

Zakhar!

The banner say: People's Commissariat for Healthcare.

The first hearing on fire funerals.

Hi!

You look great.

We need the human body to burn completely and turn into pure ashes.

For that, we need a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius for 75 minutes.

Nikolay

Bodies that are significantly soaked with medications take longer to burn.

Men take about 20 minutes longer to burn than women.

Burning of corpses was practiced by many cultured nations.

Like Romans, Greeks, Japanese and Jews.

But it was always a privilege of the rich and famous.

Only in the USSR,

cremation will be inexpensive and available to all…

In the last 100 years,

about 4 million human bodies were buried in Moscow.

Just imagine the amount of decomposition substances

poisoning the soil!

Our cities grow.

Cemeteries take almost

a central position in them.

They stand in the way of residential development and construction!

Comrade Nesterov!

Hurry up with the crematorium construction.

I might die soon, before it is complete.

Comrades!

I have good news for you.

The first experimental fire burial in Russia already happened!

Yesterday,

an employee of the Mytischi water plant was burned!

Tomorrow his ashes will be scattered over the republic's fields!

Would you prefer a decaying corpse spreading horrible infection…

Burying in coffins is the only reason to emigrate from Russia.

…or a few pounds of impeccably clean ashes!

Fire,

the incinerating fire!

To you that we build this modern temple,

this fire cemetery –

the crematorium!

We love Polina, dear friends – the heart's aflutter in our pants.

I'll rip your heart out!

- So where do we go this time? - The Kazym tundra.

Venison, frozen meat…

Too bad it's not Kamchatka.

They've got crab there!

Kamchatka. 1919

Citizens of Soviet Kamchatka!

Volcanoes belch out fire

from our land.

And we must now belch out our rage

onto the heads of enemies of Revolution.

Each of us must be an active volcano.

Not a dormant or extinct one!

Who else wants to join the Red Army?

Fire!

Who has decided to join our guerilla squad?

Get out!

Fire!

What's your name?

Polina.

We love Polina, dear friends…

The curriculum by the People's Commissariat of Education.

Smirnov

Developed for the Unified Workers' School.

Write down the approved subjects.

Mother tongue,

Russian…

Romanian!

Old Mongolian?

Meadow Mari.

Mountain Mari, too, then.

Herbs and mushrooms.

Chinese wonders!

Folk cuisine.

The wind.

The celestial hierarchy of the Joint State Political Directorate.

The wolverine.

The Demonarium of the Republic.

Buttons,

combs,

petroleum lamps…

Silence?

Moscow. 1929

This is a dress rehearsal.

The premiere is tonight.

This scene is “Natasha's combs”.

All according to the play:

“Natasha dropped her combs in the snow”.

Liepu lapu laipo…

This is a “Path made of linden leaves”.

I have to stop the rehearsal.

I have orders to arrest your actors.

All of them? For what?

Not all.

Just men for now.

There's information that Latvians are preparing a revolt.

A revolt?

That's not possible! They're not revolters.

They're actors of the Moscow Latvian Theater.

Our premiere is tonight. Arrest me, too, then.

Later, Comrade.

You're not Latvian,

you are Jewish.

Every vegetable has its season.

Guess, who am I?

You're John the Baptist.

Good job, that's right!

You're an educated man, my dear pal.

I've derived a diamond formula

and I'd burn my head

on an oil lamp for it.

There are enough avant-gardists in our republic.

But you are number 1.

And avant-gardist number 2

is Zakhar.

I'm probably avant-gardist number 3.

And we deserve to be called the best!

My dear friend, what are you talking about!

You're wrong.

Avant-gardist number 2 in our republic is not Zakhar.

Avant-gardist number 2 in our republic is you.

The flower drowned,

the sweetheart betrayed me…

This is the song.

And Grandma doesn't remember any other words.

These people live in the north.

Each winter they die for 2 months.

Just sit down anywhere and die.

Water drips from their noses and freezes.

A long icicle, reaching the ground.

If anyone pushes them and breaks the icicle, they die.

They won't come back to life.

If only the icicle breaks, they come alive.

They say – why did you cripple me, pal…

What is this?

This is the sea!

“The puppet theater produced a show”.

Will you let me copy it?

I will.

We have a translator waiting for us with the Khanty.

“We published a wall newspaper”.

And other people

are all hairy from feet to waist.

And from waist up,

they are normal humans.

They eat raw deer heads.

They have no mouths.

They chop the heads up and put under their caps.

When they eat and chew,

they move their shoulders.

Up and down.

Up - down.

Up and down.

Can you pass the salted lard?

You're great!

Tell us, how did you make it?

I didn't make it, my husband did.

This is my husband's lard.

Her husband's lard!

Wonderful!

My husband's…

“husband”.

“Musician”.

A Black Sea sailor is walking down the street,

and his girl is with him!

A Black Sea sailor is walking down the street,

and his girl is with him!

Oh heaven, my heaven –

and his girl is with him!

Oh heaven, bee heaven –

and his girl is with him!

Oh, my Black Sea sailor girl,

give water to my horse!

Oh, my Black Sea sailor girl,

give water to my horse!

Oh heaven, my heaven –

give water to my horse!

Oh heaven, my heaven –

give water to my horse!

Hurry back. What if you don't come back, and we've already bought the rings.

Then we'll throw the rings out.

Throw them out?

What else will we throw out?

My necktie,

and your red shoes,

the funny suede ones.

And the bright-red lipstick that we chose together?

We'll throw it out, too.

And my new pair of soft-leather shoes.

Together with the box and the special beeswax polish for them.

And two pearls for earrings and a string of pearls?

Off to the dump.

We'll throw out my two socks – they're in the dresser.

The white butterfly panties,

the stockings with a triangle design…

And the red see-through cape.

The wind will blow,

and it'll get stuck in a poplar tree.

Our album of photographs, “Autumn in Pitkyaranta”– we'll throw it out, too.

No, we'll burn it!

And we'll throw out the curling iron, too.

We'll heat it and throw it out, it will make a hissing sound in the snow.

And the red dress.

The red velvet dress with spaghetti straps?

How much grief and misery will flood the earth if you don't come back!

Where is Kazym?

In the northeast, far.

In the east.

Are there any parrots there?

Probably.

Bring me a white parrot

back from that Kazym,

we'll call it

Vladimir.

No, Anton.

Knock-knock. Who's there?

Accordion? Can I play?

No!

Ah, bayan, my bayan!

Stop it! Kolya! Stop it!

Kolya! Stop it!

Come on, maybe this is the only joy I have in my life.

There were angels living in Natasha Astrakhantseva's room.

That's no surprise –

a girl like her always has a house full of angels…

And outside her window, there were Bolsheviks living in the sky.

The angels are a bit afraid of them.

At night, they'd open the curtains.

They'd make themselves comfortable on the windowsill

And they would sing a folk song:

There's a hemp plant in the field,

There's a pretty lady in the field,

There's a stump of wood in the field,

There's pretty Maria in the field.

That's all, my dear friend.

Yes… -Go to sleep.

There's a hemp plant in the field,

There's a pretty lady in the field,

There's a stump of wood in the field,

There's old Maria in the field.

I have a sister in Mogilev. Marry her.

This is just what I need!

You'll serve the working people, you fat bastard.

That's what you should call it.

I'll call it Pussycat,

it's obvious that it's a fat bastard.

Kazym. The Obatins' camp.

It drowned.

How did it fall into the barrel?

We can stuff it. -Nonsense!

Then we should burn it.

Katya, Katya!

Who are you? -I'm Seryozha

- Where are you from? - From the Khullor yurts.

Why are you crying? -Katya is dead.

Why did Katya die? -Don't you see – she drowned.

Did the owl live in your house?

This is my sister.

Wow.

Okay, let's get to work.

Come here.

What?

Go!

Good job.

Open your gifts…

Remember who this is? Lenin!

The banner say: Suprematist Painting Exhibition

Looks like your tent!

Looks like your wife!

All bodies in air are affected

by the buoyant so-called Archimedes force.

If it's stronger than gravity, the body will fly.

For the balloon to go up in air,

it has to be filled with gas.

With the possibility of retracting retraction particles

3A and 3B.

Will you make it?

I'll try, before the November holidays.

Hey, how do you say “with pleasure” in French?

“Avec plaisir”.

Avec plaisir.

How about we have a drink of vodka?

Avec plaisir!

Hava nagila, hava nagila…

We love Polina, dear friends – the heart's aflutter in our pants…

Oh heaven, my heaven, heart's aflutter in our pants…

The goddess says there will be no Soviet regime.

The Tsar will be back, life will be better

for our children and our gods.

And now the goddess tells everyone

to migrate to the tundra.

I will go to the riverhead of Kazym.

I'll take my family toward Surgut.

I'll go to the Samoyeds on Lake Num-to.

I'll go to Kuryokh-lor River, toward Obdorsk.

I'll migrate to the riverhead of Pim-yukhan.

Why is it not red?

We're out of red calico,

we need to get more from Berezov?

We have to examine each other,

for ticks.

Ticks?

Really mean ones.

I doubt it has a spine.

Although by scientific reasoning, it must.

Even snakes and fish have spines. The hedgehog is a mammal.

So it's almost like a monkey or a human.

But how can we imagine it?

A hedgehog definitely has a skull, and it has the bones for four paws.

And the rest is just a bubble with internal organs.

Why is it Anton?

Why does she like the name so much?

The children are not coming.

Why not?

The Prince told everyone – “The Kazym goddess doesn't allow it”.

It's time to visit this goddess, then.

That's a cat funeral.

They worship cats here.

That's strange for the north.

The Khanty call their world “the Land of a Cat Elbow”.

Kasum-imi comes to them in the shape of a cat.

They are saying a woman cannot go.

Tell him we come in peace.

He says the Kazym goddess doesn't like women.

Grandpa, we have a mandate!

If you don't let us go, airplanes will fly in from Moscow.

They'll bomb out your tundra, get it?

Calm down! -Don't.

We'll go see her anyway.

If she's stronger than me, let her kill me.

She was a lucky hunter,

so her sisters turned down all her suitors.

He is asking for your scarf,

give it to him.

Sisters turned down all her suitors,

so she'd stay home.

One time a Nenets suitor from Yamal came.

Okay.

She was a good huntress,

she brought home a few bears every day.

Her sisters were greedy

and turned down all suitors.

That's why Kasum-imi doesn't like women.

One time a Nenets from Yamal came.

Handsome and rich.

Kasum-imi ran away with him.

She married a northern Nenets.

The goddess didn't like the Nenets sleds.

You can harness deer on either side. Front or back.

They had a bad argument.

The wife destroyed the whole Gulf of Ob.

And she cut off her husband's legs.

The goddess when to the sky to apologize to her father, Torum.

Torum praised his daughter for kindness.

She didn't kill her husband, only crippled him.

He told her to go to Lake Num-to,

to protect this land from dark spirits.

And the Yamal Nenets turned into a pike.

I'll break an oil lamp on your head.

I'll shoot your knees

and both elbows.

You'll crawl around on your tummy and say “boo-boo”.

You vermin!

I'll take you to Kaunas, to the museum of demons.

You Krakow witch.

I will think about you!

Don't forget to bring the calico!

The banner say: People's Commissariat of sky

The banner say: 17th Anniversary of the October Revolution

I'll open a pharmacy

and name it “Polina Herb”.

I will sell medicinal herbs until I die.

I'll be the saddest pharmacist in the world.

There'll be legends about me.

Women will whisper:

he buried his Polina.

Stupid, get out of here!

Get up! Give me the snow!

They say the commissariats are monsters of bureaucracy.

Idiots, sons of bitches.

The Commissariats are our tenderness.

Our philosophy department,

where boredom is replaced by poetry.

Our two glasses of wine every morning before going to work.

The “piperuda”, the butterfly on the seals –

that's what Commissariats are.

They appeared out of thin air, right before our eyes.

Industrial plants for miracles,

factories for surprises.

Commissariat buildings are air ships,

and we will fly together!

We'll lie down on our stomachs,

we'll smile,

we'll be dead.

Cover us with red flags.

Our tears are love,

love.

What are you going to name your pharmacy?

“Polina Herb”.

The banner say: Hail the genius of art!

Comrades Khanty

and forest Nenets!

We've done many important things.

We built a boarding school for your children.

We showed you the avant-garde theater,

revolutionary art,

remember?

We opened a Museum of the Northern Peoples,

a veterinary practice…

A hospital and a maternity clinic

where Katya Obatina was born.

She is the first girl of the Soviet Yugra.

Friends,

the balloon is ready.

Tomorrow you'll fly to the sky

and see there are no gods or spirits there.

We'll fly together

and make the sky our home.

We'll create a ring.

It will rotate around earth driven by gravity.

On this ring,

we will create cities with beautiful buildings.

People from our planet'll move there,

leaving Earth to trees,

crops

and deer.

We dedicate our film and our music to the Kazym Cultural Site.

And to the Soviet Nationalities Policy.

“The Land of a Cat Elbow”

She is pleased!

Here is the Prince!

I'll interrogate the bastard tomorrow.

Cut off his eyelids.

The banner say: People's Commissariat of sky

Kazym. Present time.

Our work is simple, our concern is such:

Our country should live – that is all, not much.

Snow and winds, and the midnight flight of the stars,

My heart is calling me into the restless far.

While I can love, and while I can breathe,

While I can walk, I'll go forth with ease.

Snow and winds, and the midnight flight of the stars,

My heart is calling me into the restless far.

Ekaterina Obatina “…the first girl of the Soviet Yugra”

Directed by Alexey Fedorchenko

Written by Alexey Fedorchenko With Denis Osokin and Oleg Loyevsky

Cinematography by Shandor Berkeshi

Music by Andrey Karasyov

Production design by Alexey Fedorchenko and Artyom Khabibulin

Makeup by Polina Statsenko Costume design by Olga Gusak

Sound supervisor Timofey Shestakov Film editing supervisor Roman Vazhenin

Directors Sergey Konstantinov, Ivan Golovnev Casting director Olga Gilyova

Crew manager Tatiana Ustyuzhanina

February 29 Film Company

Producers Dmitry Vorobyev and Aleksey Fedorchenko

Red Arrow Film Company Producer Leonid Lebedev

Polina – Darya Ekamasova

Ivan – Oleg Yagodin

Pyotr – Pavel Basov

Zakhar – Georgiy lobadze

Nikolay – Konstantin Balakirev

Smirnov – Alexey Solonchyov

And others

The following is used in the film:

Fragments from works by Denis Osokin

Fragments from the film “Viva Mexico!” by director Sergey Eistenstein

Model of the first Moscow crematorium by architect Dmitry Osipov

Model of the ring city “Saturnium” by architect Viktor Kalmykov

“Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October Revolution”

, music by Sergey Prokofiev, text by Karl Marx

The end