Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Russia's entry for the Oscars is based on real events in a small Russian town in 1962 that were not acknowledged for 30 years. This dramatic account of a workers strike and the horrific response - filmed in black and white to add to the realism – feels like a real Film Club film in the mould of Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Cold War'.

Veteran director Andrey Konchalovskiy sets the story around Lyudmila (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a stalwart Party Official who is against the strike and backs the Party's response, but gradually loses faith in the system, especially when her daughter goes missing after the strike.

"Whether theater actors or street cast newcomers, the cast of Dear Comrades! all deliver. But it's Konchalovsky regular Vysotskaya who stays with you, as a complex heroine whose utopian Soviet dream is gradually unravelling. It's a remarkable performance at the center of a devastating film" – Anna Smith, Deadline Hollywood Daily.

"Konchalovsky creates an utterly convincing air of mounting chaos, brilliantly captured on multiple cameras marshalled by cinematographer Andrey Naydenov. Yet this is no Paul Greengrass-style exercise in frenetic docu-fiction, spurred on by a blur of handheld footage. On the contrary, Naydenov and Konchalovsky opt for an eerie stillness that bizarrely amplifies the film's impact. Amid the increasingly confused cacophony of unfolding events, the comparative calm of the visuals strikes a horribly threatening chord" – Mark Kermode, Guardian.