BURNT BY THE SUN 2: THE EXODUS

Russia, 2010, 150 minutes, Colour.
Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menchikov, Nadezhda Mikhalkova.
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov.

Burnt by the Son won the Cannes Palme d’Or and the Oscar for 1994. It told the story of a family in Stalin’s Russia prior to World War II. The story now continues into the war, ending in 1943, with the promise of the part 2 of part 2 to follow. (this part runs for two and a half hours.)

Sergei Bondarchuk and Mikhalkov used to make films like this in the Soviet Union of the 1960s and 1970s (Waterloo, War and Peace). It is large in scope, sweeping in its several plots and presenting war and battles most impressively. The standout in this film is a lengthy sequence of a Red Cross boat sailing with German planes doing exercises overhead but not bombing the boat. When an individual does something stupid, and one of the German bombers is doing something stupider, everything changes and there is a heart and gut wrenching attack on the boat. There are also effective scenes of political prisoners in the gulags and the outbreak of war and another wrenching sequence where a group of soldiers deemed criminals are joined by a brash group of tall young elite groups to help stop the German advance – which comes from behind them with tragic results. And there are other war episodes.

This is what Mikhalkov wanted to do, to show aspects of Russia’s experience of the war and its unpreparedness and what it suffered, especially in casualties from military to civilian. German soldiers do not come out well in this film.

But, there is political background as the central character of the original film finds himself in prison, escaping at the outbreak of war and serving as a simple soldier. He thinks his wife and daughter (played by his daughter as she did as a young girl in the 1994 film) are dead, but his daughter survives the bombed Red Cross boat.

While showing the war experiences of 1941-1942, there is a sub-plot concerning Stalin’s hearing that the general is alive and his sending an officer to track him down. The actor playing Stalin is very effective, appearing in two scenes, one the opening where the General offers Stalin a cake when he visits his house and serves the cake in a way Comrade Stalin would not expect, the second where he makes the officer keep playing the piano while he instructs him on the search for the General. The sly, political nous is suggested quite sinisterly.

So, old-style film-making with more than an influence of Saving Private Ryan’s war scenes, offering a lot to reflect on with Russia’s harsh war experiences.

1. The impact of the original film, the portrait of a family, life in Russia in the 1930s? The fate of Kotov?

2. The sequel, the first part of the sequel? Title, the exodus and war?

3. 1941-1943: war action, Kotov's experience, prisoner in the Gulags, serving in the trenches? His beliefs about his family's death? Nadia and her story?

4. The framework, the dream and Stalin, 1941 and action, 1943 and Stalin and the search for Kotov? Intercut?

5. The opening dream, the family, lyrical? Stalin genial, Beria present? Stalin's delight, Nadia, the cake and the timing, Stalin admiring the cake, Kotov smothering Stalin in the cake? Waking up?

6. Kotov and his friends, waking up, the prison, going to work in the mine, changing his status? Trying to find out his status from (*the?) political prisoner? The war, the escape, the Germans and the attack?

7. Kotov and his serving on the front, the working soldiers, digging the trenches, the lieutenant and his command? Holding the line? The arrival of the large elite group, young, tall, well drilled, naïve? The interchange of the leaders? The young commander learning? The tanks coming, the soldier running to greet them, the German tanks, coming from behind the lines, the advance, the fight, the slaughter? Kotov and the survivors? The lieutenant shooting himself?

8. Nadia, in the special squad, the Red Cross boat, no-one with guns, the German air aces, their exercises over the boat, the man with the gun, the bomber and his mooning the boat, the shooting, the pilot and his anger, not obeying orders, attacking, the decision to attack the boat and massacre the people? The detail and realism?

9. Nadia, surviving in the water, holding on to the mine, the priest, his talk about prayer, baptising her, his floating away? The ship with the archives, the glamorous woman and her chandelier? Their not stopping for Nadia, her getting ashore, the mine destroying this boat, the wreck of the chandelier and Stalin's statue on the shore?

10. Nadia and the village, no-one to be found, three German soldiers, the confrontation with the gypsies, the massacre without motivation? The two Germans killed by the girl? The girl encountering Nadia, going up the hill, watching, the question to go down the hill to the German squad and to the people or not? Nadia and the cross, prayer, the right time, doing God's will? That there was more to do? The people from the village gathering, the girl killing the soldiers, the shooting, the burning of the people in the barn?

11. Stalin and his quest for Kotov, summoning the officer, with Beria, making him play the piano, his standing to listen to Stalin, Stalin ordering him to keep playing, the focus on Stalin's face and his shrewdness?

12. The officer and the search, the young girl from the special corps, her story, information, the flashbacks? Going to the intelligence headquarters? The officer, trying to be hospitable to his visitor, his trying to deal with the Russians living in occupied territory? The Kotov stories?

13. Nadia on the front, the deaths of the young Russians, the dying nineteen-year-old boy, wanting to see her, her baring herself for him? The long reverse zoom from her?

14. To be continued ....