Schwarzer Zwieback

How does one become a revolutionary? The process is hard and by necessity gruesome, as Soviet citizens know – and as Kurt, a homeward bound German prisoner-of-war, soon learns. All the weeping and wailing in the world will not save people’s grain from confiscation in this autumn of 1918. The young revolutionary Tanya goes about her work with a steely determination that confuses the soft German almost as much as the Zhivago-esque figure she cuts while adding wood to the stove. Kurt begins to understand and love Tanya and her new-born world. Rappaport unfolds a vision of our common political origins – three years after 1968, and outside of any time at all in terms of his iconography.

Source: Filmfestival goEast 2012