Sleeping with the Enemy
Vor (also known as The Thief, Russian with English subtitles,1997)
Seen on 15 August 1998 for $8.75 with Linda at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
Pavel Chukhrai has written and directed not only one of the best Russian films to come our way in a long time, but probably one of the best movies of this year.
In a pretitle sequence, we learn from the narrator that he was born on the roadside in 1946, his father having died in the last year of the war against the Nazis. Six years later, Sanya (Misha Philipchuk) and his mother (Katya, played by Yekaterina Rednikova) are on a train and meet Toljan (Vladimir Mashkov), a tall, brawny soldier. Toljan exudes a charismatic sexual appeal and by the time the train ride ends, he has bedded Katya and Sanya is told to call him Daddy.
Using his uniform as credentials, he is able to get a room in Baba Tanya's apartment, where several other families also live. Katya is happy but Sanya is both mesmerized and terrorized by the brutish man who is only nice to him when he is corrupting his young mind, telling him how to take what he wants and not put up with guff from anyone. His tattoos--a tiger on the back of his shoulder and Josef Stalin on his chest--are meant to be warning signs. He even tells impressionable Sanya that Stalin is his father, and that it's a secret.
Katya soon has her suspicions, that he is seeing someone behind her back; she is shocked to discover he is stealing from their fellow tenants. She is shocked but follows him anyway, and they travel all over Russia, as Toljan steals from friends and neighbors and then sneaks off into the night onto trains. Toljan winds up imprisoned, however, and sent away for years in Siberia, on a completely unrelated charge, and Katya remains faithful to this lout who clearly doesn't care if she follows him or not. He is clearly indifferent and unrepentent. He likes the life and "work" he has chosen for himself, and sees no reason to change, despite Katya's pleas. Throughout all of this, Sanya sees the spectre of his father, the one he never met.
The performances by Philipchuk and Mashkov are outstanding, as the wide-eyed six-year-old and the thief, respectively. Together they have an undeniable chemistry that is essentially the heart of the movie.
Now, put into the larger historical context, it makes even more sense why Katya is following Toljan all over Russia. Katya is Mother Russia, her son is the future, and Toljan is every tyrant she has ever accepted unquestioningly as her leader--the most deadly one of all having been Josef Stalin. Like Toljan, Stalin stole from the people who trusted him and liked him. Betrayal of the worst kind.
Director Chukhrai bravely explores the psyche of a people who have never really fully faced up to the brutalities of their past, and the leaders whom they chose to perpetrate the worst crimes against them. His use of close-up is especially effective in showing the mesmerer and the mesmerized.
Also worthy of note is Dima Shigarev, the 12-year-old Sanya, who is wide-eyed but clearly world weary, having kept up the vigil for the man who betrayed them, closely guarding a firearm and a color photo of Josef Stalin, even when Krushchev was firmly in power. Shigarev's face is very expressive, and really enhances the conclusion of the movie.
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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