Kapitan Volkonogov bezhal - Captain Volkonogov Escaped - Капитан Волконогов бежал

Kapitan Volkonogov bezhal - Captain Volkonogov Escaped - Капитан Волконогов бежал

Directors: Natasha Merkulova e Aleksey Chupov

Starrings: Yuriy Borisov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Aleksandr Yatsenko, Nikita Kukushkin, Vladimir Epifantsev, Anastasiya Ukolova, Natalya Kudryashova, Dmitriy Podnozov, Viktoriya Tolstoganova, Yuriy Kuznetsov, Igor Savochkin, Maxim Stoyanov, Polina Country: Russia, Francia, Estonia

Year 2021

Review Author: Roberto Matteucci

Click Here for Italian Version

"Just say I forgive you."

Human beings are weak and inclined to commit evil. Some have even perpetrated despicable atrocities. The day of repentance always comes. It is the day of awareness.

Who should one ask for forgiveness from? According to St. Peter, God is:

“Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus.” (At 3, 19-20)

This must be done with the collaboration of the penitent, who must be truly repentant. The Eastern Christian monk Isaac of Nineveh recognizes repentance, prostration, as more valuable than the miracle of the resurrection of the dead. Nothing is more beautiful than repentance:

"Who knows his sins, is greater than who resuscitates the dead with prayer ... Who cries himself for an hour is greater than who trains the whole universe. Who knows his own weakness is greater than who sees the Angels." (1)

It's very simple, just repent and accept God's absolution. However, remember, only God can give pardon, nobody else's.

Repenting in Russia is not easy. Raskol'nikov (the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment) becomes aware of having committed a ruthless murder, even for futile reasons because he will not steal anything. He enters into a trance, he is sick; he is prostrated, he has a fever, he is debilitated, but he is not repentant. Assassinating a disgusting loan shark does not push him to redeem himself:

“And if only fate would have sent him repentance— burning repentance that would have torn his heart and robbed him of sleep, that repentance, the awful agony of which brings visions of hanging or drowning! Oh, he would have been glad of it! Tears and agonies would at least have been life. But he did not repent of his crime.” (2)

Raskol'nikov's journey is still lengthy. God cannot forgive him and earthly justice has only had pity for him “in with the most recent fashionable theory of temporary insanity”. (2)

Captain Volkonogov, a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics army officer, chooses another solution. During the interrogations, he tortured and executed innocent people. He asks for indulgence from men, in this case, directly from the victims. Since they are dead, he must ask their relatives. Captain Volkonogov does not address God; he is not interested in his absolution but in that of human beings. To get it, he starts an interminable tribulation.

Captain Volkonogov is the protagonist of the Russian film Kapitan Volkonogov bezhal - Captain Volkonogov Escaped - Капитан Волконогов бежал by directors Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov, presented at the 78th Venice Film Festival.

In the 1930s, ferocious repression was unleashed in the Soviet Union. All dissent was suppressed. Soon it will be an indiscriminate slaughter, for no reason at all. Incomprehensible sadism will seize the security forces. The Great Terror eliminated statesmen, party members, leaders, intellectuals, ethnic minorities, officers and soldiers, diplomats as well as Stalin's family members and collaborators. Even, ordinary citizens, such as peasants and workers were victims:

"... in those two years, 681,692 people were executed, but the total number of victims could be around one and a half million, including many officers of the Red Army." (3)

The trials and the false confessions were obtained through torture and maltreatment. They threaten to kill the relatives of the accused:

"Terror was a capricious, diabolically cruel, unpredictable and destructive phenomenon like the opričnina of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar whom Stalin, very interested in Russian history, admired and took as a model." (3)

The country was full of spies, distrust, all ready to lay charges against anyone, both for political and personal motives. It was an endless spiral and the torturers became tortured.

Captain Volkonogov is a member of the special squad. Together with his companions, he is a persecutor. At the beginning of the film, there is a black screen, on which young men appear. They are playing volleyball. Mid-shot, inside an old aristocratic palace, the ball ends up in a huge chandelier. The players are all soldiers. Handsome, muscular, powerful. They perform remarkable athletic gestures. They play among themselves, they fight. The camera is close to the actors. Numerous families live in the building, together due to the lack of housing.

It seems a quiet environment, but elite troops are the most influential component at that time. However, something happens, and doubt hovers in the barracks. A Major throws himself out of the window. He was the head of Volkonogov. Captain Volkonogov becomes a suspect. He could turn from torturer to tortured. He begins to realize the crimes committed, the horror of hell and longs for redemption. He steals a file containing the names of the dead and runs away, chased by all the servicemen who want to arrest him. Captain wishes to contact the families of the fatalities to seek their forgiveness: "I have to obtain forgiveness" "I want to go to Heaven".

The themes are psychological and religious, about remorse and redemption. Furthermore, there is the political subject of communism and the Stalinist period.

The other topics are free choice, moral responsibilities, and religious ones.

The filmmakers explain some topics. Volkonogov has the anguish of eternal damnation. The Captain has a determined religiosity. He forgets the earthly fears to have comfort in the afterlife:

“Natasha Merkulova: Volkonogov goes through several stages in terms of his relationship to redemption. At first, he's just afraid that when he dies, he will go to hell where he will be slowly disemboweled. At that point he isn't genuinely atoning for his sins – he is motivated by his survival instinct; he wants to escape eternal suffering. But as he communicates with the people whose forgiveness he seeks, our hero realizes that life cannot always be reduced to the opposition of pain or no pain. In this way, Volkonogov starts off from the selfish motivation of simply trying to save himself, but as he runs, he grows into a person capable of feeling someone else's pain and truly repenting.” (4)

The film is an uninterrupted frantic run. It takes place in the buildings, in the streets, in the alleys, in the abandoned factories. Volkonogov runs to escape from hell. He must need, at all costs, their clemency. He encounters the sorrows of families, also affected by the Great Terror. His ordeal is in the difficulty of having their forgiveness. Everyone chases him away.

The sinner accomplishes sin by free choice. After his cruel acts, goodness can return to contrition:

“We really believe that everyone is born good,” adds Chupov. “Everyone is born with a soul and some just let it ‘sleep’ for a while. But it can always wake up, like in this case. You can spot that ‘Russian fairytale’ code because our movie is really a parable, albeit based on some sad historical events that took place in our country.” (4)

The Captain's soul wakes up, but the journey is painful and tiring. He must remember every punishment, every death, every infamy.

The film has a meticulous historicization, but not a precise reconstruction. Communism has committed bloody crimes by marking a population. However, torture, extermination of minorities and ethnic groups do not belong only to Stalin, but are widespread throughout the world:

“Russian history forms a base here; it’s our history and we know it best. But we are also addressing people in different countries because torture still exists, even though it’s really hard to believe. If someone watches our movie, and later on decides not to hurt another person, then it will serve its purpose,” says Chupov, with Merkulova admitting that originally, the story was much more brutal.” (4)

Torture is not an exclusive product of Russia.

Captain Fyodor Volkonogov is afraid. He has the fear of inflexible divine justice. He is obsessed with going to hell. He has inner trouble. The directors speak of two types of fears:

“... all our movies are based usually on our personal fears this particular story is based on two specifies fears, first fear is the fear to become a victim of the torture and the second fear is to become a tortured by yourself sometimes the border is too thin, sometimes you just don't notice when you cross it and that's a big danger.” (5)

Volkonogov's fears are the same as the authors. The man fears being tortured, so Fyodor runs away. On the other hand, he does not even want to torture himself. He previously tortured people, and now he is punishing himself in his desperate search for family members. It is an inexhaustible torment for Volkonogov despite his vigorous escape.

Volkonogov suffers from algolagnia. Sadism in abusing will turn into masochism. He gets beaten up, he tolerates insults and mortifications from relatives. It is self-destructive, his journey will have only one result: martyrdom. And, martyrdom is delayed only by his strength. He is muscular, taurine, sporty and sensual bearing. His impetus is moderated by his hieratic, both with himself and with the victims.

The story starts with the escape. The speed will never slow down again after that. Explained by Natasha Merkulova:

“We wanted the film to have the energy of an arrow in flight, with all of the action compressed into a very short timeframe. As a framework for the drama, we liked the idea that our hero has just 24 hours to solve his problem, no more. 24 hours – is that a lot or a little? Volkonogov manages to live out an entire life in that time. These kinds of genre tropes became necessary for us to tell the story of a person undergoing a complex metamorphosis. They allow us to keep our arrow in the air throughout the whole film.” (4)

The film is an arrow. Upon being thrown, it accelerates rapidly until it reaches the target. However, arrows do not cover long distances, so Volkonogov has a duration. He has twenty-four hours - the time of the narration - to avoid the hunt for his comrades and find forgiveness.

The details of the Captain's misdeeds will be revealed in explanatory flashbacks. The authors describe the technique as follows:

“Aleksey Chupov: We didn't want the flashbacks in the film to come across as the main character's memories. We set ourselves the task of making his past just a part of the story. We didn't want the viewer to be alerted to the transition, as in: 'attention, we're now heading into the past', or, 'attention, we've returned to the present'.” (4)

The flashbacks are indistinguishable. They are inserted into the film layout without any distinction. It is the memory of the protagonist. It is confused with his present. His existence has the momentum of an arrow.

The flashbacks are from his past. Compassion is his conflict. The antagonist are his conscience and the Major who leads his pursuit.

Although the film has historical significance, its scenography is not as rigorous. It reaffirms the international nature of the events. The authors chose Russia but could have set it both in Nazi Germany, in Pol Pot's Cambodia, and during the Argentine dictatorship.

The public understands immediately that the Captain cannot be saved. Therefore, the tension is about the possibility of receiving forgiveness. A stimulating tension, with surprises and harmony in the fleeing. The chase is accurate, but Volkonogov has to be careful both not to be imprisoned and to achieve his goal. It is the scheme of the plot, the running, the conversations with relatives. Any situations are interspersed with daring and hormonal escapes for the physical, erotic exaltation of the Captain.

The film has an abundance of meaningful scenes. Some have a chromatic dimension, mostly red such as in the sequence of the dance. Others have a metaphorical dimension, such as the exit from the common grave.

This is the frame of the explanation of the causes of the massacres: suppressing a follower of the minority is a preventive measure since, in case of an invasion, those followers would support the invaders.

The pace is marked by confrontations with relatives. They are all edifying dialogues and represent human diversity. A daughter lives in the morgue, she has lost her home. A father does not believe in his son's innocence and denounces him. A woman is naked. A wife is arrested for a stupid joke.

The population has an enormous fear. Moreover, the major - commander of the pursuers – has a deadly disease. There is efficiency in executions, with a professional and innovative executioner who doesn't waste bullets. The executions are continuous, just like a real death assembly line.

There is even an ironic tone.

"We have killed everyone, there is no one working anymore" is the tragic reality inside the garrisons. They have no agents to pursue the Captain, almost all of them have been removed or are in prison. The consequences would have negative repercussions during the German occupation a few years later. The purge has decimated the military force and efficient citizens. The initial resistance against Nazis would be fragile and ineffective. The carnage of soldiers and civilians, in the sieges of Stalingrad and St. Petersburg, was originated from the Great Terror.

There is dramatic irony in the quality of the torture: "I tortured him better than the fascists." He was referring to a Republican fighter from the Spanish Civil War. He had been captured and tortured by the fascists, but he had not confessed. Instead, of the inhuman mistreatment, he will admit anything, even fallacious guilt, to Soviet servicemen.

The camera is focused on the Captain, preferring the mid-shot to enhance the vigorous posture. Rapidity, hurry, dust, it is like hell. Volkonogov can go to heaven by helping a dying woman.

1. Anna Maria Cànopi, alzati va' a Ninive, Edizioni Paoline, Milano, 2006, translated by the author

2. Fëdor Dostoevskij , Crime and Punishment https://www.planetpublish.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Crime_and_Punishment_T.pdf

3. Roger Bartlett, Storia della Russia, Oscar Mondadori, Milano, I edizione ottobre 2007, translated by the author

4. https://variety.com/2021/film/global/captain-volkonogov-escaped-venice-1235061209/

5. https://youtu.be/JUaau1iXRl0