| Film Review | The American Historical Review, 105.2

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| Film Review | The American Historical Review, 105.2 | The History Cooperative

Film Review

The Knot. Written and directed by Aleksandr Sokurov; produced by Svetlana Voloshina. 1998; 90 min.; color and black&white. Russian. Distributor: Film Studio Nadezhda, St. Petersburg, for ORT (Russian Public Television).

"Taisia Zakharovna Sherbak, daughter of a Kuban' peasant, a photograph of 1912. Isakii Semenovich Solzhenitsyn, from a peasant family, Stavropolskii Region, will volunteer for the Russian Army in World War I; awarded for bravery. These beautiful people, Isakii and Taisia, will become husband and wife in 1917. Soon after, Isakii is killed. Their son Sasha, Sasha Solzhenitsyn, will appear in this world on eleventh of December, 1918, in the winter, a hard time of the year." With this narration, read by author-director Aleksandr Sokurov, we enter a short but expressively told life story of Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. With solemn classical music in the background, performed by Solzhenitsyn's son Ignat, interlaced with the natural sounds of everyday life, we browse through old family photographs, almost hypnotized by Sokurov's slow, under-emphasized voice. "In 1941 he graduates . . . and leaves for the war . . . in 1942, while on the front, he writes his first stories . . . By the end of the war he is captain . . . In 1945 he is arrested . . . Since 1945, already for over fifty years, this man will have not one hour of peace. The stupidity of the rulers is a mortal disease. Silence of millions of witnesses, jealousy of the peers, exile, hard work." 1

Sokurov conveys his sadness that his Russian compatriots do not fully appreciate Solzhenitsyn. But one must readily agree with Sokurov that the Nobel Prize given Solzhenitsyn in 1970 made him "untouchable" by the regime. Sokurov quotes Solzhenitsyn's unforgettable words from the Nobel Address: "What can literature [do] against the assault of open coercion? Let us not forget that coercion does not live alone or is capable of living alone: it is necessarily interlaced with lies . . . And [it takes] a simple step of a simple brave man not to participate in lie: let this lie and coercion rule in the world, but not through me. The lie can withstand a lot in the world, but not against art. And as soon as the lie is refuted, the nakedness of coercion will be exposed in its ugliness." . . .

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