Burnt by the Sun

Russia/France 1994 (subtitles)
134 minutes
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
Leading players - Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menchikov & Ingeborga Dapkunaite

Synopsis

In the summer of 1936, Colonel Sergei Kotov (Nikita Mikhalkov) is spending a few days holiday with his pretty young wife, Maroussia (Ingeborga Dapkunaite), and their six year old daughter, Nadia (Nadia Mikhalkov), at their dacha in the country outside Moscow. Colonel Kotov is a former hero of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and he is regarded with awe by those who encounter him because of his closeness to Stalin. Life at the dacha is peaceful, consisting of an idyllic round of swimming, boating, and picnics.

Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Dimitri (Oleg Menchikov), Maroussia's former lover, who is not simply paying a social call. Dimitri works for the secret police, and Colonel Kotov is at terrible riskÉ

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Dedicated to "all those who were burnt by the sun of revolution", Burnt by the Sun is a brilliantly realized parable of the way political ideas affect our daily lives, colour our attitudes, shape our fates: with or without our collaboration. Colonel Kotov is lost in contentment with his radiant wife and adorable child, and he fails to see that, far from protecting him, his stature as a hero of the revolution is precisely what makes him a threat to paranoid tyranny.

Burnt by the Sun is, in every way, Mikhalkov's film. Not only has he written and directed it, but he also stars in it, and the part of Nadia is played by his own daughter. Mikhalkov brings to the part of Kotov a magnificent presence, a sense of vitality tempered by infectious kindness and gentleness. The film displays the visual inventiveness that has always characterised Mikhalkov's films, which include 'Oblomov' (1980), 'Dark Eyes' (1987), and 'Close to Eden' (1992).

Burnt by the Sun won the 1994 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, together with the Grand Jury Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.