This film was masterfully orchestrated with its use of allusion and cinematically pleasing to the viewer. The story begins with a woman baking a cake while a man who sits and eats the cake brings up, rather tearfully, the recent death of an important local mayor. Varlam Aravidze the source of focus in the film is a recently deceased dictator-like mayor that through his govern established the use of many Stalinistic ideals and utilized countless Machiavellian techniques to subdue the people of the town. The film then goes through a surreal like dream sequence in which the woman, a former victim of this cruel regime, baking the cakes thinks of these injustices and creates a world in which proper punishment, the exhumation of his corpse, is administered for the crimes he committed. Through this dream sequence the director skillfully oscillates between the past and the apparent dream present back to the real present. During which many allusions are made to the actual Stalin regime and the damages inflicted on the people of the time. Despite the time period being set during the stagnation era the after effects of the administration are still profound in this films portrayal of what ends up being a tragedy caused by the after effects of the administration. The quote "the time we live in has Varlam arrested" might have been a literal reference to this time period of stagnation in which Varlam's older Stalinistic practices were no longer widely condoned but as can be later be seen through of the film, cannot be simply ignored. The movie was definitely much more entertainment based than others that might have come before it that might have only served ideological purposes. The movie was very insightful in Soviet customs which can be seen through the funeral scene that might seem odd but familiar in the ritual aspect to foreigners. The time skips and changes in dream planes added a level of ironic enough realism that made the social commentary on the consequences of ignoring the past even more palpable to a viewer. Overall the film was great and worth watching the full 150 minutes of it.
Review of Repentance
