Original subtitles

DomFilm Cinema Company

With the assistance of cinema studio Eurofilm-Service PRESENTS

STARRING Pavel Derevyanko

THE NINE LIVES OF NESTOR MAKHNO

ALSO STARRING Ada Rogovtseva Kirill Pletnev Daniil Byelih

SCREENPLAY Igor Bolgarin Victor Smirnov

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY Oleg Maslov-Lisichkin Igor Primiskiy

ART DIRECTOR Pyotr Koryagin

COMPOSERS Igor Myelnichuk Pavel Krahmalyov

SOUND DIRECTOR Yuri Chyeh

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Felix Kleyman Victor Prihodko

PRODUCER Vladimir Dostal

DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY Nikolai Kaptan

TRANSLATION AND SUBTITLES Dmitriy Ostrovskiy

Get in!

[EPISODE TWO] Take him! Here are your sheets, here's your bowl

[MOSCOW, 1910. BUTYRSK PRISON] cup, spoon. Settle in.

Who exactly are you?

A person.

Oh. Excuse me. Of course.

From Yekaterinoslav.

Clear enough.

That is not why I ask.

Everyone else is in this cell

sort of politically, and you are

it seems, criminally. Did I guess right?

So what am I saying?

Maybe you would be better off

so to say, with your fellow travellers?

Mutual interests? Playing cards, denying culpability?

I'm an anarchist.

Anarchist?

Which anarchist persuasion do you follow?

I haven't chosen yet, still thinking about it.

Just like you, Isaac Matveevich.

So what's up. The pigs let you keep books in here?

There is a good library here.

You can take some too,

if you would like.

Are you literate?

Not especially. -But have you read books?

I have. -What kind?

All kinds.

Alright, but which have impressed you the most?

Which, which.

Yemelyan Pugachev's manifesto.

Alright, what else?

What else?

Also about the Zaporizh Ataman Danylo Nechai

Also The Magical Transformation of

the Merchant Puzanchik into a Poodle!

You got any books here on anarchism?

Yes, of course. Starting with antique authors,

even you could find something here.

So what is this? You're really anarchists? -Sure, you could say that.

Alright. So everyone is for free will and against the czar?

That much is certain.

That's the only kind they keep at Butyrka.

And have you killed enemies?

I mean, if you were fighting for freedom and for free will, you must have.

I am also from Novorussia.

From Lower Dnieprovsk. -No way. From Gulyaipolye province?

Yes.

Couldn't tell it by looking at you.

I lived abroad for a long time.

Let's get acquainted.

Zinovey Solskiy.

Stepan Trunov. -Isaac Metveyvich Schomper.

Pyotr Andreivich Arshinov. -Nestor Makhno.

Nestor Ivanovich.

It's a great pleasure, Nestor Ivanovich. -Likewise.

Alright then, y'all keep reading.

You tell me, "America, America." -Yes.

What is it to me, your America? What is your America to us?

Russia is a distinct country, with its own

way of life, with its own norms. -But as an example of freedoms!

They have poor people too, of course. But fundamentally...

Wait, hold on, do you read

Bakunin? He wrote "we treat monarchy with deep

"resentment, but at the same time a large republic, with military forces,"

"a bureaucratic centralism, will"

"occupy itself with conquests and oppression"

"and not with provision of happiness and freedom"

for its citizens." Do you not think these words

could be applied even to America? To America, first.

No doubt, it started so nicely.

The declaration of freedoms, and then what?

War with Spain, Mexico, Philippines,

Cuba, and on it goes. The extermination of

Indians, conquest of foreign lands, this is your America.

Please excuse me if I say something wrong. But as I see it,

you are learned people.

So what do we have here?

Where government exists, there cannot be happiness.

Or do I misunderstand?

Let's look for example

at anarchism, which does not recognise government.

But here we're talking about revolution, changing of the old order.

Here, our comrade has raised

the most essential question. What is

an anarchist republic? You all keep saying

anarchist republic without government, yet

at the same time a republic, any republic

is a strict system of government. Electoral?

Sure! But still government. The president or the premier,

The president or the premier, call it what you will.

How can a republic exist without government?

Please answer me, and that, comrades, is it.

Yes, the young man asks a difficult question,

and it seems to be one unresolved by theorists.

Because, truly, how does one break the

old machine without resorting to methods

of coercion, and so to government. You, Pyotr Andreyvich,

please explain, answer

this question. -The answer to this question

already exists, really.

It was submitted by Bakunin and Kropotkin.

For us, a chief is not a person of government,

but a person of authority. He does not force power,

but a person of authority. He does not force power,

but leads to a goal.

So, it's just like the Zaporizh-elected Ataman,

Batko.

Sure, that's similar enough. The Zaporizh have given a certain

model of free will. A kind of example of

anarchism in an age of savagery.

Alright. It is clear about the chief, or Batko.

But how to deal with the exploiters?

With the pans, bourgeoisie, officers?

Should they, too, be dealt with by "authority" or some other gentle word?

No, no. Anarchism does not reject violence at all.

No sentimentality here.

Breaking the old government machine requires brutality.

Imagine that! First against violence, now for it?

Wait, are you against?

Me? What gave you that idea? Where I'm from in Gulyaipolye,

only the scarecrow is non-violent. I don't get it, who?

It's a stuffed dummy, as you would say it, which stays out in the garden without moving.

Gentlemen, you are loud!

For real though, even the real criminals have long been asleep

or quietly playing cards, and you, gentlemen!

Alright, Mikhailovich, that's enough. Zyama, please engolden Mikhailovich's hand.

Much obliged. But please do keep it quiet, gentlemen.

That's all, Mikhailovich, we're going to sleep.

Those candles are illegal too.

["Zyama, Zyama"]

Excuse me, gentlemen, but what about an army?

Or do you suppose your free

society will not have any enemies?

An army is built on the unconditional rule of the commander

and enforced by coercion.

IT'S THE SIMPL... -Shh! You will bankrupt Zyama!

It's the simplest question.

The army will be comprised of volunteers.

Composed of armed folk and elected commanders. Behind their orders

not coercion but common will. -Volunteers, eh?

How many will go, of their own free will, into bullets?

Don't you think you are embellishing the weakness of human nature?

You cannot even imagine how this nature would look

in the absence of exploitation and money.

As far as volunteers, where I'm from in

Gulyai Polye, if you call on volunteer anarchists,

you will get a whole sea, so many lads,

a whole army, and what kind? Like Sashko Semenyuta.

He burned alive, but how did he shoot enemies!

How we laughed on our way to the gallows!

That's the kind of lads they are.

Here, here you see, an army of anarchists already

being born. It's alive! The will of the people is the will of god.

The eye of the people is the eye of god.

Oh right, excuse me. I've forgotten my scripture.

Makhno, get ready.

I'm telling you, get ready to leave. -Where?

You don't get to ask questions here.

Hurry up!

Stop. To the wall.

Open.

Go.

Move!

Go! Get in, you son of a bitch!

Here's what you all asked for!

What was wrong with the other cell?

Come on in, have a seat. -Hello.

Would you like a drink? -Sure.

Everybody meet Nestor. No nickname. Hohol, in other words.

Listen, Mandolin. Why was I brought here?

Wow!

What do you mean? It was an order.

Whose?

What do you mean whose? The emperor's.

The emperor's? What is this nonsense?

This one right here, this emperor.

What for? Why did you do this?

Cool, cool.

So me and the bros here, the comrades, so to speak, had a meeting

and decided that you don't need politics, that you're not political

You're one of ours, you're here now because you're one of us.

But why? Why did you do it? Understand this, I am political.

I get it, I get it. -I'm an anarchist.

I suffer for freedom, for free will.

Who here is not struggling for freedom?

Not struggling for free will?

I am also for free will, for freedom! How does it go again?

There is no god, no need for a czar we will kill a cop

we won't pay taxes, and... -We will not enlist.

That's what's up. So, everybody here is for freedom.

No lads. I'm about to head out.

What's up, son. You don't like it in here?

What's that got to do with it?

I want to study.

To transcend politics...

In prison, the main science is ours.

You and I don't belong with the gentlemen.

We are foreign to them, you are ours.

Fold!

Open the door!

Transfer me back. Cell 5 with the politicals.

What's your issue?

Transfer me back. I'm a political prisoner.

I have reviewed your case. I designated it

as criminal, so here are your comrades. They asked for you.

That's incorrect. I am here to suffer for politics.

Make any more noise and you are going to solitary

for ten days.

Hey. Get some dinner.

You hear me?

Take it.

If you don't eat today, you will have more for tomorrow.

Are you alive?

Is it over?

Incorrect.

You'll stay here as long as you're supposed to.

Drink, drink.

Make sure to eat, or else you'll die.

You're here for ten days

and how many are left

only the higher-ups know.

A tiny fellow, all skin, yet so heavy.

Lots of bone, that's why. -Here, hold him.

Lay them bones down. -Go on!

You know, this youth Makhno has been transferred to the infirmary.

They say his condition is hopeless.

Too bad. He is a good boy.

You know? I noticed that

our pupil went through many books,

but this one he read every night.

Vadim, do you remember, Lermontov's youth essay?

Of course.

Look what caught Makhno's attention.

Zyama. You are trespassing into a private realm.

Pyotr Andreivich, he is our pupil in common. -Yes.

We must know the course of his thinking.

Here, it is marked in pencil

"They were afraid of his gaze and voice."

"They respected in him some great vice,"

"not boundless misery, of a demon"

not a person."

Right.

Not quite an anarchist yet.

But of greater fortitude than all of us.

Yes, that is right.

Perhaps we should help him?

But how?

How? I think we need a lawyer.

Lawyer? Easy to say. A lawyer means big money.

Zyama. I think your father the banker will not refuse to disburse a small

sum for charity. Especially if

it's likely to pay off for him in the future.

Zyama, talk to him. You know how to talk pretty.

Ah!

I will do as you say.

Let me introduce myself.

I am a defender of rights or an advocate in other words. Comrade

Chairman of the Municipal Directorate of

Jurors, Marko Moisyevich.

I also represent the political Red Cross.

A lawyer, you say? I don't have money for a lawyer.

Don't worry about that.

Right now, we will compose a motion about your

affliction of consumption, which you had sustained

in prison

due to your mistreatment and

beatings.

It's all the same.

Outside of prison or inside. What is the difference?

Eteral hard labour? It seems to me

I don't know of anything eternal in

this life. Everything has a term

of existence.

Even the sun will go out one day.

What are your requests and wishes?

I only have one request.

Let them transfer me to the political cell.

That is all.

Get in.

Congratulations on your return, Nestor Ivanovich!

Come in, join us for dinner.

No, I will not eat someone else's food.

Yes, you will. -Sit. We have a commune here.

We all submit to the iron law of the cell.

Someone paid good money for all this, and all I have

is a dead flea that hanged itself in my pocket.

You haven't changed at all, Nestor Ivanovich.

How about spiritual food? Are you willing to study?

Why do you think I came back? I saw then that you are learned people.

Figured I could learn something from you.

Consider this, we will be strict.

First of all, Russian language, literature, writing.

And of course arithmetic, history, geography.

Politics? -Of course.

But consider this anarchism, which

draws you so intensely, is not romantics, not just words,

but a science.

I can provide for you mathematics, physics, and other precise sciences.

What a great arrangement! Zinovey Evseyich

will teach you Russian language

and literature. -Russian?

Imagine that. A Jew, and yet he holds a PhD in Russian academia, what a wonder!

Eat, eat.

[MOSCOW, 1917. BUTYRSK PRISON]

They are withdrawing! And here too, withdrawing.

We should anticipate major changes.

Wars have always precipitated major

social cataclysms, even the successful ones.

The Crimean War resulted in the liberation of peasants

and a host of other reforms. The Russo-Japanese War

damn near blew up Russia altogether,

and now this!

A world war, Russia vs. Germany.

It will be special. Russia's defeat is inevitable,

but in the meantime ten million

peasants receive arms and combat training, what does it mean in a country where

the majority thirsts for big social

changes, you understand? -Idiocy! For the czar's government.

I hope this idiocy doesn't

evolve into general terrorism. -You know what?

Drop it! A revolution will be

wonderful! It will be a revolution of roses and black

anarchist banners, you will see! -Or red Bolshevik flags.

Never, Zyama, never. The new dictatorship

carried by Lenin will be rejected by

the freedom-loving Russian people, isn't that right Pyotr Andreyvich?

No matter what kind of revolution it will be,

it will liberate us.

That alone is wonderful.

Listen, Schomper. Why do you only see

in newspapers what you want to see?

Look at this, Austrians are getting their asses beat.

Germans are getting owned too.

Zyama, what are you happy for?

This is the defeat of our revolution and you are celebrating.

Ah-ha! Anarchy, it seems

will not happen by next Tuesday.

Maybe on Wednesday? -You know what?

Gentlemen, there will be no dinner today. -To hell with dinner!

Mikhailovich, this is our third day without newspaper.

I keep reading the old one. -Where is the newspaper?

There are none.

Comrades!

Something happened. Something definitely happened.

You know, Pyotr Andreyvich, I think we should talk to the neighbours.

They don't know either.

Citizens of new Russia! From now on, you are no longer

political prisoners. The czar has been overthrown. -Hurrah! Hurrah!

The commission on general amnesty is releasing you unconditionally.

-Hurrah! Hurrah!

To freedom, citizens! Hurrah! Let's keep going!

So friends, maybe let's have one last sit-down?

So how do you like Moscow? -I don't know.

I've been looking at it through a window for so long.

I need to get home.

You should wait a little.

Look around, listen.

Are your eyes hurting? -Yes.

That's from being unused to the abundance of light.

Let's go there.

[DRUGSTORE]

I kiss your hands.

Greetings, citizen. -Greeetings.

We are from Butyrska prison. -Aah. I understand.

Our eyes grew weak from the darkness. -I see.

You need sunglasses.

Yes.

Choose what you like.

Please.

Going far?

To Gulyai Polye. -What's in Gulyai Polye?

Land. -A lot?

From end to end.

Like a sea.

[GULYAI POLYE STATION]

I have chicken eggs, fresh milk.

Isn't that Nestor Makhno?

Must be Nestor.

No. He died in a labour camp in Siberia.

What Siberia? He was hiding in Moscow, in a cellar.

Look! Black eyeglasses, like an old man.

Did he go blind or what?

What's up grandpa. Can you take me to Gulyai Polye?

Sure, maybe you have some rubles?

Sure. -Have a seat, have a seat.

The czar is overthrown, but rubles still hold value for now.

We're not there yet!

Thank you.

How are you getting there? -On foot, over the steppe.

Just to the village over there.

I thought you are blind, can't see.

I can see just fine, Batko Ignat. I can see you

how old you've gotten, how beat up your body is.

Yes, I've been shot, got wounded.

Who are you that you recognise me?

Recognise me now?

Nestor, my god! Nestor.

Alive!

My god!

Nastya? -Hello.

All just old maids' tales. -Tales? What tales? Everyone knows.

She saw him hop out the wagon.

Just old maids' tales.

They didn't even take the shackles off him.

Old maids' tales.

Keep talking about old maids' tales, old men's tales,

but I'm telling you that when I looked into his black eyes,

my soul dropped to my heels.

And you say! Let me get a light.

Terrifying eyes!

Look. Here he comes.

Hello, fellow countrymen!

Got a good look?

Alright then.

Mum!

What are these people saying that

your eyes look like a wolf's? Well?

Take those glasses off. Take them off!

Eyes like eyes. Human eyes.

They suffered in those dungeons. But they are still my son's eyes.

Come in.

Say hello to everyone.

If I met you on the street, I would not recognise any of you.

Wow, oh wow, so many kids! Hey!

Enough. Come into the house, come on, get in.

Let's go, let's go.

What happened to the dry law?

The dry rule was abolished in Ukraine a long time ago.

It's a wet law here!

I'm so happy, so happy.

To your health!

I hear you've been chopping coal in the mines.

Nestor, over at the mines, the miners have been conscripted and mobilised.

Who's underground then?

They came up with this:

Brought in Chinese, by the thousands.

This is profitable for the owners, brother.

They get paid less, it's easier.

The Chinese don't ask for much. Bit of soup and bread, and they're happy.

"Thank you, boss."

We will have to do something about that now.

Please come in, sit. Sit.

Sit, sit.

Oh.

This is our Nastya.

How she has grown up, what a maiden!

Come on, sit down.

Sit, Nastya.

You, mother, and you, my little brother,

and all my brothers and relatives.

Whether you believe it or not,

god's miracles are real, and today we see one before us.

Come on. -To your health, brother!

Life is so wonderful now.

I lived like a blind man. Humanity has always

strived toward justice, to the commune, to live properly,

but each time those scumbag exploiters

would drown free will in blood. -Nestor Ivanovich,

I have never kissed anyone before.

Kiss me.

Nestor! Nestor!

I have to go, Nastya. The boys are calling.

Nestor Ivanovich, let it wait until tomorrow. They're not going anywhere.

Nastya, no, I can't. I'll be quick.

Lads! Sashko, Ivan!

Timofei, it's you! Why are you wearing glasses? You a professor now?

So you survived? We have survived, lads!

Lads! I'm so happy, so happy.

Lads, let's remember our friends.

Those who could not make it to this meeting,

those who died for freedom.

I wish I at least knew where the graves are

of Sashko Semenyuta or Khshiva.

So how will you live now?

I'll lay low for now.

People are looking at you.

There is no government. They have all scattered.

And if not us, then someone else will step up, right? -Plenty of those.

Perhaps without you.

You can take some time,

lay down and relax,

let your eyesight recover.

Listen, Fyedos. Drop your Navy tooth-baring, Fyedos.

We have to begin with a just distribution of lands.

Right!

That's how we get the most villagers -That's right!

behind us. -No! Where we must begin, Nestor,

is by finding traitors

and turncoats. Those who have

betrayed our cause and will continue to betray.

Starting with those because of whom our comrades are not

next to us right now. Death to traitors! -Death to traitors!

We made you a little list.

It's clearly outlined, whom and what for.

Pyetro gets a pine coffin. -Exactly!

Sharovskiy will be buried alive. -Exactly!

Nestor.

What's with you?

Why didn't you like the paper?

It's not a joke to kill a person, Fyedos.

It's necessary that it's lawful,

like it used to be.

We wrote to you, precisely and lawfully,

like accountants, whom and what for.

But it must be lawful.

Lads, we must seize the police archive. For lawful evidence.

There is no government, it is time.

You really grew your brain sitting there [in prison], eh?

[ALEXANDROVSK]

Let's go. We need a standard, lads.

Oh yes, I know the place.

What are you doing? This isn't ours, it's Bolshevist.

What's the difference?

I will explain the difference later.

Let's go.

Open up! You got black cloth?

We have it all if you have money.

I see you are solid clients, for solid clients

we always have it all, what are you after?

We have such materials!

We have black fabric, such quality! Unfortunately,

I cannot let you in, we have a client

and we are working, but you know...

Lyonya, bring the fabric, please!

Lyonya's about to bring the fabric, you know

we have spectacular black silk, such black silk! Lyonya, hurry up!

You will like it. It's a military order! Here, please, for you, I see that you

are grieving. For you, as victims of the revolution,

we can offer a very good discount. Check it out.

Can you do draw and do lettering? -Lyonya is very skilled.

He even finished the academy. And what should we write?

Alright, first draw a skull

and cross-bones.

I'm sorry, like on a kerosene container? -Approximately. Then write...

You know what to write?

Write...

Write this, write...

"freedom for good." No! Write... write...

"Freedom and brotherhood."

Then write "freedom or death"

That's right! "Freedom or death"

So well said! Lyonya, hurry, hurry!

Unbelievable how well you put it,

you are almost like the Paris commune!

I see you are a smart person, I noticed right away.

Hang on, boys!

Lyonya will write it for you.

Look, here. Do you accept the order?

Beautiful, isn't it?

[FREEDOM OR DEATH BLACK GUARDS]

Citizens, this is now the directorate

of the people's militia. -What?

Directorate of the people's militia. -I'm Fedosiy.

Igor. -I'm about to tell you what's up.

Hold on, Fedosik.

As I understand, in accordance with the

decree, we have the full right to assemble and also access for

for all interested citizens to

secret materials of the czar regime, do I understand correctly?

Well? -Correct.

In accordance with all that

we would like to know who died an untimely death for freedom.

Where is the archive? -In the cellar.

Behind a vault door and the county commissar has the keys.

Boy, we have the master key. It works on every lock.

Don't fret.

Here. All of our cases.

About Semenyuta, Khshiva, Schus, about me

and oh! Makhno! Haha! Look at that! Looks just like you!

What are you laughing for? Alright, listen.

Since you're our accountant now

go ahead and take this home and scan through it all.

Find all the documents, information, everything we need.

Take some lads to help you out, whatever you need.

Understand? -Got it. I will do it well.

Nice. Go ahead.

CAST Pavel Derevyanko as Nestor Makhno Ada Rogovtseva as Evdokiya Makhno

Daniil Byelih as Fedor Schus Igor Gnezdilov as Timofei Lashkevich

Andrey Zhurba as Sashko Lepetchenko Vladislav Mamchur as Ivan Lepetchenko

Alexander Zhukovin as Semyon Karetnikov Yuri Molchanovskiy as Marko Levadniy

Alexander Kobzar as Omelyan Makhno Constantine Kostyshin as Grigoriy Makhno

Vyacheslav Vasilyuk as Savva Makhno Lidiya Obolenskaya as Nastya

Maxim Bramatkin as Mandolin Artyom Bilbik as Solskiy

Igor Slavinskiy as Arshinov Sergei Siplivy as Schomper

Vladimir Kuznetsov as Trunov Episode also starring:

Mihail Avgust, Victor Andrienko, Nikolai Bondar, Borislav Borisenko,

Yuliya Vasilyeva, Anzhela Vishnevaya, Svetlana Danilchenko, Sergei Detyuk,

Yuliya Dehtyarenko, Igor Yegorov, Valeriy Kovalenko, Pyotr Koryagin,

Oleg Raenko, Vyacheslav Rukavishnikov, Sergei Sorokin, Anton Kharkovskiy

Writers Igor Bolgarin and Victor Smirnov

Director of Cinematography Nikolai Kaptan

Directors of Photography Oleg Maslov-Lisichkin and Igor Primiskiy

Art Director Pyotr Koryagin

Composers Pavel Krahmalyov and Igor Myelnichuk

Sound Director Yuri Chyeh

Directors Yuri Homenko and Natalia Kaptan

Operator Alexander Boiko

Editors Anna Terenyeva, Alexander Timenko, Alexander Antonchenko

Costume designer Alla Shesterenko

Makeup artist Vasiliy Gorkaviy

Visual effects and titles DomVideo Company

Consultants Lt. Gen. Vladimir Sytnik and Lt. Gen. Gregory Dyachuk

Director of Picture Igor Yegorov

Executive Producers Felix Kleyman and Victor Prihodko

END OF EPISODE TWO