Utomlyonnye solntsem - Burned by the sun (major spoilers)

A few people seem to be surprised at the fact that this movie did not have the intended emotional impact on me, so here is a bit of explanation:

The movie is about a KGB official who is a Bolshevik hero and leads a happy life. He gets visited by another KGB official who is not a Bolshevik hero and wallows in self-pity all the time, and whom KGB-guy-1 has majorly fucked over a couple of times before. The year is 1936 or 1937 and now the balance of power has shifted and KGB-guy-1, who is a bigger boss at the moment, is about to be arrested by KGB-guy-2, who is apparently on the rise. We are supposed to be sorry for the KGB-guy-1, who is a True Certified Hero, a Good Father and a Real Man, and also for the KGB-guy-2, who is a victim of Unhappy Love (mostly due to KGB-guy-1 sending him abroad for many years and marrying his woman in th meanwhile).

First of all, these stories were a dime a dozen in Russia in the eighties, and I've seen a lot more of them than I ever cared to see. Poor True Communist dying in Gulag. Problem is, I think Gulag is exactly the right place for the kind of people who were Party and KGB officials in the thirties. They have built that lovely concentration camp system for the general population, and it was only a matter of time until a significant part of them was put there as well. They deserved it. Remember KGB-guy-1 getting beaten up by scary thugs in a car in the end? He used to be their boss. The movie tries to introduce him to us as a loving husbamd and father, but all I see in him from the very beginning of the movie is a boss of such thugs.

I think that the story of the poor mailman who gets shot near the end by KGB-guy-2 just because the KGB-guy-2 is feeling bad about the arrest of KGB-guy-1 deserves our attention a lot more that the KGB guys, although it probably wouldn't have made a very good movie either.

Not that the movie was a total loss for me - I sure enjoyed it when the KGB guys got what they deserved.