Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageTovarisch, I Am Not Dead (2006)
Director: Stuart Urban
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Director Stuart Urban’s documentary on his ‘totally extraordinary’ Polish-Jewish-born doctor father Garri is, in equal parts, fascinating and tantalising. Comprised of home-movie footage, archive stills and film material, plus interviews filmed by the director mainly in the early 1990s, it takes its title from his father’s own 1980 book, describing Garri’s triple escapes, firstly from the Nazi occupation of his birth-town of Ivano-Frankovsk and later from his Soviet captors.It paints a compelling portrait. Garri (who died in 2004) was clearly a voluble, emotional and pugnacious man. It’s moving to see him revisit, after 50 years, his old flame, his home in south-west Poland/Ukraine – an area where the pre-war Jewish population of 100,000 was massacred by a combination of the German SS and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators – or former KGB headquarters in Moscow and Uzbekistan in search of his file.
But, frustratingly, Urban’s inability to unearth any new material on, or precise facts about, his father’s history – was he possibly an Allied spy? – leaves a somewhat unresolved and unsatisfactory ‘aura of mystery’ over the entire film.
Author: Wally Hammond
User reviews of this film
-
- Karyn Almark said...
- Posted on Apr 16 2009 16:44 A wonderful and uplifting film. The Time Out reviewer was in a tiny minority, btw, everyone else gave it 4 or 3 stars.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Stuart Urban
Genre(s): Documentaries
Rated: 12A
Duration: 83 mins
UK Release: May 2 2008
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
London Children's Film Festival
Read our exclusive reviews of films playing at the 2009 London Children’s Film Festival
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now