In
1946, Stalin launches a propaganda campaign to lure back to the Soviet
Union the Russian émigrés who fled to the west during
the Communist revolution. He offers them amnesty and the chance to
take part in the reconstruction of the country. Alexeï (Menchikov)
returns with his French wife, Marie (Bonnaire), and their young son,
only to find that they have walked into a trap: many of the returnees
are imprisoned or shot. Being a doctor Alexeï fares better than
most, but conditions in which the family must live are harsh. Marie
wants to escape, but Alexeï favors lying low and avoiding suspicion.
Frustrated with one another, and under the increasing pressure of
being spied upon by neighbors, each takes a lover. Marie throws Alexeï
out and embarks on a scheme to return to France, thereby putting the
entire family in jeopardy. Employing a cold-war style political angle
to heighten the melodrama, Wargnier (Indochine) focuses tightly on
a family unit and evokes the all-pervasive atmosphere of mutual suspicion
in Stalin’s Soviet Union, revealing the systematic erosion of
personal relationships. Throughout the film he maintains the feel
of a sweeping historical epic reminiscent of Hollywood films of a
bygone era.
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| PHOTO Courtesy
of New Yorker Films |
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