Repentance (1987)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Expected more

Brilliant and touching

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie has amazing cinematography, phenomenal screenplay, incredible acting, it's a masterpiece.

This film was masterfully orchestrated with its use of allusion and cinematically pleasing to the viewer. The story begins with a woman baking a cake while a man who sits and eats the cake brings up, rather tearfully, the recent death of an important local mayor. Varlam Aravidze the source of focus in the film is a recently deceased dictator-like mayor that through his govern established the use of many Stalinistic ideals and utilized countless Machiavellian techniques to subdue the people of the town. The film then goes through a surreal like dream sequence in which the woman, a former victim of this cruel regime, baking the cakes thinks of these injustices and creates a world in which proper punishment, the exhumation of his corpse, is administered for the crimes he committed. Through this dream sequence the director skillfully oscillates between the past and the apparent dream present back to the real present. During which many allusions are made to the actual Stalin regime and the damages inflicted on the people of the time. Despite the time period being set during the stagnation era the after effects of the administration are still profound in this films portrayal of what ends up being a tragedy caused by the after effects of the administration. The quote "the time we live in has Varlam arrested" might have been a literal reference to this time period of stagnation in which Varlam's older Stalinistic practices were no longer widely condoned but as can be later be seen through of the film, cannot be simply ignored. The movie was definitely much more entertainment based than others that might have come before it that might have only served ideological purposes. The movie was very insightful in Soviet customs which can be seen through the funeral scene that might seem odd but familiar in the ritual aspect to foreigners. The time skips and changes in dream planes added a level of ironic enough realism that made the social commentary on the consequences of ignoring the past even more palpable to a viewer. Overall the film was great and worth watching the full 150 minutes of it.

This film was absolute genius and, in my opinion, one of the best films produced in the 20th century. It is on par with films like the Seventh Seal and Schindler's List in terms of symbolism and philosophy. The only way one can not like this film is if one does not understand it- which is quite possible, if one is only haphazardly watching it and is not fully engaged, or is expecting the film to chew up the messages for you and give you something simple you can quickly take away without actually appreciating the movie- then this is the wrong film for you. In order to properly appreciate this film you have to engage in higher philosophical thought and reflect both on the lives of individuals of the Stalinist era as well as your own era, since this movie is timeless. It explores human nature at its basest level, and what causes humans to act in the ways they do.

I have to say that my review is based on what I saw in 1990. I was 21....................................The plot is your standard totalitarian nightmare. Let's dispense with it.Everything else is uniquely boring: the symbolism, the surrealism, the open politics and the veiled, the acting, the dialogue, the pace.Worse, most of it, one or two cinematically breathtaking sequences aside, is unoriginal.Some would probably require you to sit through this, for the sheer culture of it all.But in the end, why bother.Because the ones done away by the tyrants have little use for surreal, artistic pastiches.