Reviews

This film certainly is very important for dealing with Swiss history, and it is important that it shows much about life of those victims of the mid-century European racism whose voices are not so often heard. The film certainly makes an important contribution towards seeing the past in a less distorted way.

But, just because the subject is so important, it is a real pity that the film is artistically so bad. It is just a repetition of the same thing over and over, and at some point it just stops. The recurrence of the same thing is not reflected upon in any way, and much of the challenge the story offers is lost in the tedious flow of the simple narrative. Further, I understand that emotions are very important in films, but when there is just a mother crying for minutes when her child is taken away and no attempt at all to convey emotions in a more complex way, this is a pity. I think this film is typical of films from German-speaking Switzerland: There are very good intentions, but a lack of artistical capabilities and expertise. How much better would it have been if the film wasn't only about a subject everyone in Switzerland should think about, but also had real artistic qualities. Then, it would also have served the aim of preventing people from forgetting the dark sides of the past much better.

Actually, the topic of this film could be quite interesting. Its narrative, as I view it, is characterised by the move from bad to worse. It offers considerable psychological insight into how easily students, in a very strictly ordered environment that gives them very little freedom, can fall pray to a kind of sectarian leader who demands that they worship him as their 'captain' and lose the sense of reality.

Two very different faces of totalitarianism are contrasted in a very interesting way. In principle, it should not matter that much that this is probably not what was intended.

Dostoyevski, for instance, was a staunch conservative who propounded a conservative nationalist and religious ideology, which did not prevent him from writing novels that show an astonishing variety of ideological and philosophical topoi. Therefore, it should not matter that much that, as it seems, the totalitarian action of the teacher was probably intended as a positive contrast to the strict order that is there at the college. But, in my view, in this case, the ideological purpose nevertheless affects the quality of this film. It is good for provoking thought about sectarian totalitarianism, but that's all. The pervasiveness of the ideological purpose dominates the whole story so much that most of the interesting qualities of the situation get lost.

I would say that this is a most typically American film, in the slightly derogatory sense this word often has to Europeans when used in cultural issues: It is dominated by ideas, such as freedom, but the words remain empty, devoid of liveliness, and there is not the slightest hint of the idea that flight from authoritarian order could mean something else than following a sectarian leader. I do not object to depicting such bleakness in movies, and it must probably be regarded as an achievement of this film that it can produce such repulsion in people who are not familiar with this kind of authoritarian society, but the bleakness is disguised in such a nice and kitschy American stereotypes, such as striving for freedom, that I find it just bad taste.

Usually, I don't like soap operas, and I rarely watch them. But I was impressed by how enormously popular it was in Russia. It is a real cult there, and a big percentage of people watched it and talked about it. So, I watched it, too, when I was in Petersburg for some weeks, and I would say it was worth it. The stories are quite complex, and most of the various threads of the action are very interesting.

It is interesting how popular such a series can become abroad. In Russia, it is certainly much better-known than in the US. When I was in Russia, some liked it and others disliked it, but I don't think there is anyone who does not know it or has no opinion about it - which is just the more remarkable because the series is so sophisticated that watching several pieces is necessary for fully understanding it.