Curiosity about Soviet life has often brought the subject to the silver screen. Eisentein's classic Potemkin (1925) was one of the first. And even the most blasé fan of film probably has seen the lavish, romantic epic Dr. Zhivago (1965). Television viewers got their chance to glimpse the royal life in this year's miniseries, Peter the Great. With the American premier of Kindergarten, audiences have an opportunity to see a film about the Soviet Union in 1941, written and directed by a contemporary literary figure.
Kindergarten, a semiautobiographical work, is the two hour and twenty minute creation of poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Yevtushenko is best known for his poem on anti-Semitism, "Babi Yar", and his novel, Wildberries. He has also toured the United States as part of a cultural exchange and has spoken out against censorship in his native country.
Kindergarten is the story of the journey of a young boy, Zenja, presumably Yevtushenko, who is sent from Moscow by his mother to join his grandmother in Siberia. It is 1941 and Moscow is in a turmoil due to the war, and Zenja's life will be safer if he is as far away from the city as possible.
Zenja is a small, slight child holding onto his violin. Amidst the frantic crowds at the train station, his mother hands her jewels over to the conductress, telling her to watch over Zenja. Zenja calls after his mother who simply walks out of the station, but he seems fairly cheerful about the journey ahead of him. The conductress cares for him, giving him soup and looking after him. The train is full of other people fleeing the city: there is a troupe of performers looking to practice their craft. The passengers are upset over the war but seem to accept their fate. However, whatever acquiescence they have is short lived. A German plane bombs the train, leaving the surviving passengers to bury the dead.
Zenja and the other passengers resume their journey on foot. Still holding onto his violin, he wanders through a marketplace. He's fascinated by the exchange of goods, but he falls in with a group of thieves to foster his own survival. The child works in a munitions factory for a while but leaves to continue the search for his grandmother. Almost miraculously they are reunited. The old woman is overjoyed. Zenja makes a life with her until the allure of the war catches up with him again.
Yevtushenko spent less than a million dollars to complete Kindergarten--a small sum when compared to American films and to the scope and setting of this work. He himself has a small role, playing a chess champion in Moscow who has no opponents because of the war.
Yevtushenko chose ordinary people for the film; he has said he looked carefully at faces. This seems to have worked; there is no obvious sign that the performers are all inexperienced. The faces are full of emotion, and the boy playing Zenja gives a powerful performance. The only actor with any reputation is Klaus Maria Brandauer, best known as Meryl Streep's husband in Out of Africa. He portrays a German soldier interrogating Zenja's father in Tolstoy's house.
In the genre of silent Russian films of the 1920s, one is struck by the close-ups of suffering faces and of people as part of a group. There are constant crowds--the passengers on the train,
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