Original subtitles

The film has been awarded a special jury prize, "Silver Bear"

at the 38th West Berlin International Film Festival in 1988

International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI)

Jury Award of the International Catholic Organization

of Film and Audio-Visual Media in Information (OCIC)

Otto Dibelius Film Award

of the International Evangelical Jury (Interfilm)

The material of this film made in 1967

has been saved by the employees of the USSR GOSFILMOFOND

M. Gorky Film Studio

THE COMMISSAR

Written and Directed by Alexander Askoldov

Music by A. Schnittke

Cinematography by V. Ginsburg Production Designer - S. Serebrennikov

Assistant Directors: V. Levin V. Grigoriev, L. Prilutskaya

Starring

Nonna Mordyukova

Rolan Bykov

Raissa Nedashkovskaya

Ludmila Volynskaya

Vassily Shukshin

Based on the story by V. Grossman

IN THE TOWN OF BERDICHEV

- Bath time. - What?

I said, bath time.

FAMILY BATHHOUSE

Go on!

I've found Yemelin!

Bastard!

I've found Yemelin.

Commissar!

Vavilova!

I've found Yemelin!

Is the mare with him?

No, he's alone. Poor as a church mouse.

Shall I put up steam?

Shut up!

Let me pass.

He was hiding in a cellar, feeding lice.

Come on.

What about some apple cider, Vavilova?

Stop this bullshit.

- Where's he? - Over there.

- Where did you catch him? - He's local.

He ran away two days ago and went straight home.

- Did he put up resistance? - No, only his wife did.

- His woman is sickly. - A white-legged goose.

- Is the horse gone? - No horse, no harness.

Open up!

Come out, Yemelin!

Some Red hero!

Violating Red Army regulations!

You traded the revolution for a woman's skirt!

The revolution does not take revenge, Yemelin. It defends itself.

In keeping with our conscience

and for the sake of our bright future, I curse you!

And I put you under the tribunal!

What are you laughing at?

It's just stupid.

How did you end up with this?

Just like that.

I would have gotten rid of it, but it was too late.

You know I haven't been off the horseback for three months.

When I got to the hospital at last,

the doctor refused to do it.

You're our fighting unit.

You want me to put you under the tribunal?

I even threatened him with my Mauser, he refused anyway. Too late, he said.

Who is it who's made you heavy, Klavdia?

Stop that bullshit.

All right, forget it.

But who will I put in your place?

Maybe that one...

...from the division's political section?

He's a strong Communist.

You're all strong Communists.

The anniversary's almost here!

Who's going to lead a discussion in your battalion?

The steward should be given it hot.

He delayed the delivery of boots.

As for cutting the cloth for puttees, let them do it themselves.

How can one do the fighting with you?

Are you going to give birth soon?

Yes, very soon.

There're many disgruntled in the second company.

Especially that curly-headed one who sings all the time.

- Hello, Magazannik! - Hello, hello.

How are you doing?

How can I be doing if the man from Communal Department comes to see me?

You'll have to get cramped a bit, Comrade Magazannik.

Mamma!

Maria!

Children!

People!

They think I'm Rothschild!

What impudence!

The bourgeois have been done with!

And the Soviet power has only one room left.

Magazannik's room.

We thought you a politically conscious man, and you...

The Soviet power takes a room

from a working man with six children.

What about the grocer Davidson?

And the clothier Khodorov? And the millionaire Ashkenazi?

Madame officer! Comrade officer!

Stop it.

We were so happy when you had won.

Madame!

You should be our protectors!

The devil take you!

- I'm going to throw her away! - Yefim!

Welcome.

There's no such rule that I should give her my bed!

I'm very sorry.

There's no such rule that I must give my bed!

Follow me! Mount up!

Get out of your cellars, you won't be punished!

Come on, get out of your cellar, you won't be punished.

Here's one for you.

Good morning, mamma.

Potatoes again?

On the first day, God created potatoes.

On the second day...

...God created potatoes.

On the third day...

...God created potatoes, too.

And on the fourth and the fifth day God created potatoes.

Why did He create us on the sixth day?

What?

To feed such a band,

one has to be as strong as the wrestler Ivan Poddubny.

Here.

You tramp.

Robbing bandit.

Yefim, you'll be late for your work.

Is she asleep?

Thank God.

She didn't sleep all night, pacing like a beast in a cage.

When she wakes up, give her some tea.

Quiet!

Quiet!

If any of you lets out a squeak, I'll break his neck.

Fixing things! Soldering!

Mending pots!

I've got seven kids!

I'm very sorry,

but you seem to be up already?

Yes, I'm up.

When one gets up, one has to eat something.

So I thought perhaps you'd come and sit at the table?

I'd like some hot water.

- I can't even think of food. - The samovar is hot.

I'm very sorry, Madame Vavilova,

but you seem to be pregnant.

I would've gotten rid of him, but it was too late.

I haven't been off the horseback for three months.

I've drunk so much iodine from our army dispensary.

He's like a knife in my heart.

He's wasting me, even my palms get all sweaty.

Oh, my God, this woman has lost her mind.

Your words will make even stones cry.

One shouldn't say such things even about the children of his enemy.

And you're speaking of your own flesh and blood!

Where's the samovar? I'll bring it.

Are you out of your mind?

Lifting such a locomotive in your condition!

It weighs no less than three poods!

Please, come on in, Madame Vavilova.

Sit down on that chair, this one has a shaky leg.

I've got my own sugar, from my ration.

Children are such a misfortune, such a nuisance.

And they all keep living, no one's going to die.

Madame Vavilova,

you can't go barefoot in your condition!

Yefim can do without shoes.

Here, put them on.

Nowadays no one cares that a woman has to give birth.

What ever do I need them for?

Come on, put them on and that's it.

Madame Vavilova,

how soon are you to give birth?

Oh, It's going to be soon.

Very soon, Madame Vavilova!

You think my oldest one, Sonya, didn't cost me a lot of blood?

A pail of black blood, that's what she's sucked out of me.

When she was little, she was sick with every disease possible.

Scarlet fever, and diphtheria,

and measles, and whooping cough, and mumps.

I think it was only cholera that she didn't come down with.

One could go mad from all this.

But you don't have that right, because you're the mother.

Our regiment's medic used to say

that all sickness comes from your belly.

If you're a neat housewife, the clothes will last long.

This shirt here, first Misha wore it, then Syoma and Lyova.

Oh, those kids.

They want to eat every day.

Hardly a week passes without them having a rash or a boil.

And Doctor Balaban

charges ten pounds of flour for each visit.

Just for one visit!

For God's sake, Madame Vavilova,

a newborn screams his lungs out and turns blue,

and it just breaks your heart to think that he might die.

Or when he gets a diarrhea...

You know how many diapers you'll need?

Or when he develops a rash, just try and not powder him.

Oh, and when they're teething...

And, finally, one day you hear a spoon rattling in his mouth.

Ding-dong.

You think having babies is as easy as fighting a war?

No, Madame Vavilova, It's not that easy.

Yefim!

Why do you stand behind the curtain when you can come in?

Good evening.

Can you imagine? Madame Vavilova is expecting a child.

What can I do about it?

The Red Cavalry just found the place and the time to have a baby.

Your hips...

138 centimeters.

We'd better make it 145 cm.

That's what I call hips.

Yes, we're having real hips here.

Don't be embarrassed, because for a woman, hips are everything.

Yefim!

Madame's not interested in what you think about her.

How can you know what she's interested in?

The soul of a woman is her waist.

Yefim, you're going to drive me mad!

Your waist.

We'll make it fit loosely.

Madame, one needs very long arms to be able to embrace you.

Will you turn, please?

Maria.

It's too tight here.

Madame Vavilova!

We'll make you such a dress...

Wearing such a dress...

Wearing such a dress, one is not supposed to walk on foot.

Wearing such a dress,

a woman should ride... on a tram.

I know.

What do you know,

some day

the trams will be running in our town, too.

And I'll ride to my work on a tram.

I'll look out the window and say:

Fixing things! Soldering! Mending pots!

Sonya!

Come here.

Hold the baby.

Didn't your mother told you to go to bed?

Syoma, leave the wash alone.

I'm not going to sleep!

Yefim, when will you start working at last?

Do you hear me?

Yefim, go and start working!

Yefim, go and start working!

Do you think, Madame Vavilova, that somebody has ever said to me:

Yefim, you don't feel good,

you've got a poor health, go and have a vacation.

Go to the Odessa estuary.

No!

Nobody has ever come and said that.

Tramp.

The Odessa estuary can't wait to see him.

Tramp.

My little treasure.

Just look at this angel.

Madame Vavilova!

You're taking It over from us

at full running.

Shut up, tramp!

Madame Vavilova, why don't you go inside and rest?

Come on.

Hold on!

Everybody does it.

- Has it started? - Go away.

Stop it!

Yefim, children, go away, for God's sake!

An iron.

What for?!

Push!

Push!

Help me!

Help me!

It seems it stopped.

Mamma, the smelling salts! Hurry!

Stop torturing me!

Stop torturing me!

What do you know!

Who needs it, all that pain?

Neither she, nor the baby, nor her husband, damn him, nor God in Heaven.

Who was that smart aleck that thought of this to our misfortune?

Oh, why do we suffer so?

I'm not going to live.

I'm not going to live!

Yefim!

We got a baby boy.

I swear to God, l knew it would be a boy!

I knew it.

Look, It's Vavilova!

Wait! Come back, Vavilova!

Hey, Miss Vavilova!

Vavilova!

Stop!

Madame Vavilova, someone to see you.

Hi, Vavilova!

Wipe your feet.

Come on in.

You go, I'll finish washing.

Yes, It's really a baby.

The Whites took the offensive.

- Our troops are retreating. - It's only temporary.

Yes.

The 14th Army is gathering near Zhmerinka.

Several divisions are coming from the Urals. Ukraine will be ours soon.

The breakthrough will come in a month.

Then we'll be back.

But now, Klavdia,

the Whites are coming in throngs.

Yes, we've got our pretty face all in blood.

Spare us your jokes.

Don't yell, you'll wake up the child.

Listen,

maybe you'll go with the field hospital?

The place may be cut off for a long time.

You may as well stop smoking.

You're blowing like a steam engine.

Yes...

Look, we may be late for the Bald Mountain.

I guess the watch is pure gold?

I gave orders to deliver to you a sack of flour, sugar and bacon.

They'll bring it in a cart.

Well, let's say goodbye.

Take care, Vavilova.

Don't forget to write, Vavilova.

I'm very sorry, Madame, but we have heard everything.

Comrade Commanders said that the Whites are in Chudnov.

- It's forty versts from here. - It's just nothing.

Tomorrow they'll be here.

In Fastov, there're so many cavalrymen

that one can't hear what people say because of the horses neighing.

Maria...

You think I'm afraid? I'm not afraid!

I just want to say that whether they're Poles, Austrians, or Whites...

You can stay here.

They'll bring you so much to eat, it'll be enough for all of us.

I can't stay here.

Some bastard will inform on you, and you'll be shot.

And you've got children.

We've got children,

you've got children.

Please don't try to scare me.

They've been trying to scare me since I was born.

You may live here as long as you want.

What is to happen, that'll happen.

And that's it.

Lullaby, lullaby

Go to sleep and never cry

Or the gray bad wolf will come

And will grab you by your arm.

Lullaby...

Oh, my best calico skirt

I kept you from getting dirt

Then my many kids were born

And for diapers I got you torn.

Lullaby...

Where's a bush, there's a leaf

Where's a gutter, there's a stream

I will sure find another

But I miss you to an extreme.

Lullaby...

You remember, my dear love

How we used to stroll about

Sailing over our heads

Was the prettiest ever cloud.

Lullaby...

Just listen how she sings.

That gentile woman has gone completely crazy.

Now her boy may catch a cold, now he has a fever.

Just like a good Jewish mother.

What do you think?

If a woman puts leather pants on,

she doesn't become a man for that matter.

Maria...

I love you.

Yefim...

I'm scared.

Is it really and truly

Our river dried in the wood

Is it really and truly

My beloved left for good.

I must tell you, Madame Vavilova,

this is the best time for people.

One regime has left, the other one's not here yet.

No contributions, no pogroms.

He's so clever only in daytime. And what will you say at night,

when the whole town will wail from fear?

Shut up! All morning you peer into the street,

Iooking for something, waiting for somebody.

When a new regime comes,

it says everything will be all right.

Then it says it will be much worse.

And then it says we have to find the guilty ones.

And who's guilty?

Who?

I'm asking you who is to blame?

Townspeople and philistines!

Get out of your cellars! You won't be punished!

The ataman's going to speak now.

I am the ataman!

Townspeople and philistines! Help the atamans!

We'll kill you.

We're going to kill you now!

We're going to kill you now!

We're going to kill you now!

We're imposing a contribution on you!

Mamma!

Don't touch me!

We gotcha, Yid!

Here's one for you!

It hurts! Let go of me!

What are you doing?

Don't beat me!

Get her! Catch her!

- I don't want to play with you! - So you don't want to?

I don't want to play with you!

So you're putting up resistance?

Just look at her!

Mamma!

Mamma!

They hurt me!

Mamma!

Tie her up!

Mamma!

Mamma!

Mamma!

Pogrom mongers!

Bandits!

Murderers!

Children!

And these are my children!

A three-inch caliber one.

The trams will never be running

in our town, Comrade Vavilova.

Never.

Why not, Yefim?

Because there will be no one to ride on them.

One more visit from Ataman struk,

or the wild Marusya,

and there will be none of us left.

Everything will be all right, Yefim.

Everything will be all right.

Ataman Struk

gave a haircut to my brother.

He took a pair of scissors, regular scissors,

with which beautiful dresses are made,

and cut his beard.

Only together with his beard,

exactly with those scissors that make beautiful dresses,

he had cut his head off.

And had a very long good laugh.

Shut up, Yefim. You will scare the children.

You've become so spiteful.

No, I'm not spiteful. Not at all.

I'm for the International of kindness.

There're so few kind people left in the world.

I don't know,

but perhaps one day

people will live where they like

and the Jewish Pale will not be restricted to cellars.

Shut up, Yefim, you will scare the children.

Wait, Maria, let me finish.

All our life

is filled with cares and troubles.

Now you have to hide,

then you get to have your close ones buried, then you yourself are buried.

You have absolutely no time to talk.

Can you tell me,

Comrade Commissar,

why is it so?

How indignant everybody felt when the British attacked the Boers.

And how distressed we all were when the Turks massacred the Armenians.

But will anyone raise his voice

if tomorrow Yefim Magazannik is no more?

Where did you get it from, Yefim, those fairy tales

about the International of kindness?

The International is founded on the blood of workers and peasants,

people swallow gunpowder for it, and become very spiteful.

Fighting, marching, lice!

Lice, fighting and marching.

It sends your head spinning.

If you take fairy tales away from people,

how would you explain to them what they should live for?

People don't need fairy tales.

What they need is the truth

for which one wouldn't hesitate to die.

To die?

And what about living?

You're a good man, Yefim,

but you're a private owner.

We shall live!

And there will come

the harmony of working people on earth!

You got tired, Klavdia.

Yes.

I got tired.

Aunt Klavdia,

where's your husband?

He was killed.

In action.

Don't cry, don't cry.

Everything will be all right.

Everything will be all right.

Comrade Vavilova,

the trams will never be running in our town.

Aunt Klavdia, come on, join us.

O Lord, do not hide Your face on the day of our affliction.

Please hear us, O Lord!

Eat, sonny. Eat.

Eat.

Don't run out in the street,

in the street the horses will knock you down.

Don't climb up a birch tree,

or you'll fall and hurt your head.

And don't be a naughty boy, you hear me?

And when you grow up, remember

that your father was named Kirill, just like you.

And your mother's name is Vavilova.

Maria!

Maria!

Maria!

Madame Vavilova!

Madame Vavilova!

Look...

She's gone.

Klavdia!

Klavdia!

She's gone!

What kind of people they are, Maria?

The film was completed in 1988 at the Mosfilm Studio.

The End