''I Am Twenty'' (,
translit. ''Mne dvadtsat let'') is a 1965
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Marlen Khutsiev
Marlen Martynovich Khutsiev (4 October 192519 March 2019) was a Georgian-born Soviet and Russian filmmaker best known for his cult films from the 1960s, which include '' I Am Twenty'' and '' July Rain''. He was named a People's Artist of the US ...
. It is Khutsiev's most famous film and considered a landmark of 1960s
Soviet cinema
The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...
.
The film was originally entitled ''Zastava Iliycha'' (known in English alternately as ''Ilyich's Gate'' or ''Lenin's Guard''), but it was heavily censored upon completion, trimmed to half its original length, retitled and withheld from release until 1965. A restored 3-hour version was released in 1989, and is sometimes referred to by the original title.
The film follows the recently
demobilized
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...
Sergei, a young man who returns to his
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
neighborhood after two years of military service.
Plot
The film opens with a symbolic scene of three Red Guards from the time of the October Revolution walking down the street. Gradually, the timeline shifts, and the Red Guards are replaced by contemporary figures—a group of young people, and later, a recently discharged soldier. This soldier, Sergey Zhuravlev, is the protagonist. Sergey’s father died on the front during the Great Patriotic War, and he now lives with his mother and sister in a communal apartment near Zastava Ilyicha Square. The story follows Sergey and his friends, Nikolai Fokin and Slava Kostikov, as they navigate life.
Slava, now married with a child, still spends most of his free time with his friends, often neglecting his family responsibilities. Nikolai, a cheerful optimist and ladies' man, finds himself in a moral dilemma when his boss at work tries to recruit him as an informant. He firmly refuses and later laments to his friends, saying, "A young man—and already a scoundrel."
Sergey, meanwhile, searches for a purpose in life and a woman who meets his high ideals. During a May Day parade, he meets Anya, the daughter of wealthy parents. Together, they attend a poetry evening at the Polytechnic Museum, where prominent poets of the era—Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesensky, Rimma Kazakova, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Mikhail Svetlov, Bella Akhmadulina, and Bulat Okudzhava—recite their works. Boris Slutsky also reads poems by his late friends Mikhail Kulchitsky and Pavel Kogan, who died in the war.
Sergey later attends Anya’s birthday party but feels out of place among the "golden youth." Afterward, he experiences a surreal encounter with his late father. Sergey seeks his father’s advice, but the father, who died at 21, admits he cannot guide his 23-year-old son. Sergey then notices the room filled with his father’s wartime comrades, asleep.
The film concludes with a ceremonial scene of the changing of the guards at Lenin’s Mausoleum.
Cast
* Valentin Popov as Sergey Zhuravlyov
*
Nikolay Gubenko as Nikolay 'Kolya' Fokin
*
Stanislav Lyubshin as Slava Kostikov
*
Marianna Vertinskaya as Anya
*
Zinaida Zinoveva as Olga Mikhaylovna Zhuravlyova
*
Svetlana Starikova as Vera Zhuravlyova
*
Lev Prygunov as Aleksandr Zhuravlyov
*
Tatiana Bogdanova as Lyusya Kostikova
*
Lyudmila Selyanskaya as Katya Yermakova, conductress
* Aleksandr Blinov as Kuzmich (as Sasha Blinov)
*
Svetlana Svetlichnaya as Svetlana
*
Pyotr Shcherbakov as Chernousov
*
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky (; né Mikhalkov; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer. His filmmaking career spans over 60 years in Cinema of the Soviet Union, Soviet, Cinema of the United St ...
as Yura
*
Gennady Shpalikov
Gennady Fyodorovich Shpalikov (; 6 September 1937 – 1 November 1974) was a prominent Soviet Russian poet, screenwriter and film director.
Early years
Born in the town of Segezha, Karelian ASSR into a Russians, Russian family of military backgr ...
as cameo
Style
''I Am Twenty'' is notable for its often dramatic camera movements, handheld camerawork and heavy use of location shooting, often incorporating non-actors (including a group of foreign exchange students from
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
and famous poets, among them
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor, university professor, and director of several films.
Biography Early lif ...
) and centering scenes around non-staged events (a
May Day
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...
parade, a building demolition, a poetry reading). Filmmakers
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
and
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky (; né Mikhalkov; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer. His filmmaking career spans over 60 years in Cinema of the Soviet Union, Soviet, Cinema of the United St ...
both play small roles in the film, as do
Rodion Nakhapetov
Rodion Rafailovich Nakhapetov (Russian: Родион Рафаилович Нахапетов; born 1944) is a Soviet-American-Russian actor, film director and screenwriter. He received the People's Artist of the RSFSR (1985). Asteroid 256697& ...
and
Lev Prygunov. The dialogue often overlaps and there are stylized flourishes that echo the early
French New Wave
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
, especially
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
's black and white films. The screenplay, co-written by
Gennady Shpalikov
Gennady Fyodorovich Shpalikov (; 6 September 1937 – 1 November 1974) was a prominent Soviet Russian poet, screenwriter and film director.
Early years
Born in the town of Segezha, Karelian ASSR into a Russians, Russian family of military backgr ...
, originally called for a film running only 90 minutes, but the full version of the film runs for three hours.
Production and censorship
''I Am Twenty'' began production in 1959, during the
de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...
period of the
Khrushchev thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in ...
, when Soviet society experienced several years of unprecedented freedom of speech.
By the time the film was finished, the thaw was waning and the film's openly critical view of
Stalinism
Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
was deemed unacceptable, as was its portrayal of the lives of everyday Soviet youth worrying about money and jobs and listening to Western music. At a speech in March 1963, Khrushchev personally attacked the film and denounced Khutsiev and his collaborators for "
hinkingthat young people ought to decide for themselves how to live, without asking their elders for counsel and help."
Russia: Marlen Khutsiev's Mne dvadtsat' let (1961)
Kinoeye. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
References
External links
*
A critical essay on the film
Dramatic adaptation produced by Radio Moscow
a
The WNYC Archives
Вечер памяти Геннадия Шпаликова
/ March 5, 1997
1965 films
1960s teen drama films
1960s Soviet films
1960s Russian-language films
Venice Grand Jury Prize winners
Films directed by Marlen Khutsiev
Soviet teen drama films
Soviet black-and-white films
Gorky Film Studio films
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