CLICK ME FOR VIDEO
from critique by George Heymnt
CLICK ME for video.
Like the best political cartoonists, Efimov mocked authority in the Russian press during a lengthy career that spanned most of the 20th century. He was lampooning events during World War II as well as during the Cold War. Although his cartoon work for Russia’s state-owned media helped keep him alive, he never recovered from the emotional wound of his brother’s murder. As a result, Efimov’s descriptions of the power struggles within the Kremlin bear personal witness to many of the changes that occurred within its walls.
While the film benefits from Vladimir Brylyahkov’s evocative cinematography, its greatest assets are the animated sequences which capture the young Brodsky’s fantasies. Whether standing in awe as pianos, trombones, and other instruments float through the imaginary air — or questioning the identities of the black crows that Brodsky later realizes symbolize his parents — Khrzhanovskiy’s vivid imagination brings some much needed levity to his often ponderous film.