its a harsh view of the life lead in stalin's russia. The title indicates that a war was on even before Hitler invaded (it takes place in '40 before russia was invaded). 1984 in its true, real, form where people are so penetrated by the dogma around them, they are virtually willing to denounce their children and words like truth and justice are unknown. (one of the girls asks her mother, "what is istina?" which means 'higher truth') the suffering befalling the kids in the movie is tragic and heartfelt. Its excellently done and the acting is superb (in the russian style). There is a reason why it is rated higher than godfather.
10 Reviews
Deep and insightful
kansaj31 July 2008
There are movies, which i don't have the wish to see second time, because the first impression was so deep and insightful, that the second time raise the fear that it could disturb what I gained from the first one. And this movie gives much, too much, question after question, where no answer is absolute. It is movie about The Life, about the wish to live and about the fear of it. It describes the life of some young Sowjets before the break of the Nazi invasion, where the Sowjet presence is depicted with the real touch of emotions. As a typical Sowjet (Russian) movie the feeling and the play of the actors dominates, but because of the confrontation between young and old, in between the young ones and the old ones, there is no single cadre, which gives me a second of time to relax and I jump form one personage into another. I think that it is amazing how this feeling drama, succeed to overcome the tragedy of the situation, of its fearful environment and to glorify the Human. Somehow there is no trail of judgment, but the actors' play resolve it in the endless search for happiness of their personages. There many strong movies showing what human do to other human, this movie shows us what one can do to it self. Just the end is a bit of pathetic, but it is the true end, unfortunately, where the unification is matter of the death.
See it today!
hte-trasme4 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This was a touching and a subtle film. Made a few years before the end of the Soviet Union and set at the cresting height of Stalin's power (and, as the title suggests, just before the looming World War), it manages the trick of being at the same time both nostalgic for a bygone time and the youths who lives through it, but also unflinching about the horrors that the political environment caused people to commit against each other.
I don't know for sure and I haven't read the story that was the basis for the film, but I get the strong feeling that it was at least semi- autobiographical on the part of the author, and everyone involved in the film does a strong job of communicating his mixed feelings of affection and horror for that time.
The photography alternates between sepia monochrome (usually at school) and color (at home or out in nature), and it's the first time I've seen this trick used in a way that works not only well but also subtly -- it underscores in an understated way the themes that the film raises of humanity, freedom, and choice versus duty to the state.
While it raises these themes, it scrupulously manages to avoid being didactic about them. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions on what the characters discuss, which is pointedly what they themselves are not allowed to do. Touchingly, it becomes clear that those who are drawn in to acting so in humanly do so because the ideals of the revolution that they fought for are so dear to them that they cannot bear to imagine it betrayed. In one touching moment we are reminded that it was Lenin himself who warned against a black-and-white, right-or-wrong definition of what the truth is, and it painfully obvious that that is not at all the philosophy that has been enacted in the state that pays him service.
I don't know for sure and I haven't read the story that was the basis for the film, but I get the strong feeling that it was at least semi- autobiographical on the part of the author, and everyone involved in the film does a strong job of communicating his mixed feelings of affection and horror for that time.
The photography alternates between sepia monochrome (usually at school) and color (at home or out in nature), and it's the first time I've seen this trick used in a way that works not only well but also subtly -- it underscores in an understated way the themes that the film raises of humanity, freedom, and choice versus duty to the state.
While it raises these themes, it scrupulously manages to avoid being didactic about them. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions on what the characters discuss, which is pointedly what they themselves are not allowed to do. Touchingly, it becomes clear that those who are drawn in to acting so in humanly do so because the ideals of the revolution that they fought for are so dear to them that they cannot bear to imagine it betrayed. In one touching moment we are reminded that it was Lenin himself who warned against a black-and-white, right-or-wrong definition of what the truth is, and it painfully obvious that that is not at all the philosophy that has been enacted in the state that pays him service.
A story about 16 year-olds meant to perish in WWII
snowball-154 March 2000
That is a wonderful movie that breaks your heart. The story takes us in the last autumn before Germany invaded USSR. A group of high school kids with their eternal business of first love, classes, leaders and dreamers is suddenly thrown out of peaceful existence. A father of the most likable girl is taken by KGB and she has to renounce him publicly. She can not betray him and so she invites all her true friends (those who did not desert her for being a daughter of the enemy of the state) for a picnic. She does not say so, but t is a farewell. After that she takes an overdose of sleeping pills. In an unbelievable twist of fate (KGB almost never released its victims) her father is released in few days. The story runs about a week, but boy, how fast this kids had to grow up. It is like the innocence of their existence was lost. One day they lived in the most perfect country, where justice and equality ruled, or so they were brought up to believe. And next they new that it all were lies and innocent people were destroyed by regime without mercy. There was also problem of loyalty. Who do you stay loyal to, your friend or your country? The movie ends with few laconic lines of information what happened to the rest of the class during the war. Somebody was burned in a tank, somebody was hanged for participation in resistance, somebody became an ace pilot. It is a great movie, see it if you have an opportunity. May be you would learn something you did not know about people from the USSR and about this period of history.
Presumption of innocence
AncaH31 August 2013
I never expected to be so impressed by this picture after reading the description. I often avoid to read reviews before watching the film in order to have my own uninfluenced opinions. This movie is like a thorn which you just stepped in. It's about the freedom, of having questions, wanting to find the truth and the repercussions of these in a Stalinist regime. The alternation of black and whit with the colored picture show exactly what I was saying: the difference between liberty, happiness shreds and marginal thinking, but also the difference between a great intellect and a small-minded one. The music in the film is also great, achieving a perfect conjunction with the images and the surroundings, the society. It's also a perfect explanation of the presumption of innocence and how society arrives to judge in advance, disregarding the collateral damage.
The film is about the truth, but it is absolutely not about the truth of discovering the injustice of the system...
daniltanko13 February 2003
The film is about the truth, but it is absolutely not about the truth of discovering the injustice of the system, since every system is unjust in one way or another and people know about it, as everybody does in this film. This film however is about the exploration of truth, the real truth, the truth of heart, the truth of being loyal to your friend and to your country no matter what, no matter how difficult the situation is, no matter how unjust is the system.
Outstanding Portrayal of Russian Youth in Conflict.
bwanabrad-130 August 2021
Zavtra Byla Voyna (Tomorrow was the War). Directed by Yuriy Kara. 1987 89 minutes. 10/10
Set in Stalinist Russia in 1940 and based on a novel by Brois Vailiev. The story centers around a grade 9 class of students, but these students are older than our year 9 students, they look like year 12 students. The three main characters are girls in the class, the flirtatious Zina (Natalya Negoda), the serious Iskra (Irina Cherichenko) and the tragic Vika (Yuliya Tarkhova).
The story delves into the struggles of Iskra and Vika to reconcile their personal quest for freedom of expression and truth against the harsh backdrop of conformity to Stalin and the state as best exemplified by their teacher and Iskra's mother. Vika invites friends to her house and reads a poem from a decadent poet. An ideological conflict arises when Vika's father (Lyuberetsky) extols the virtues of freedom of expression to the girls and a few other members of the class. News of this soon reaches their teacher and Iskra's mother and he is soon denounced as an enemy of the state. The secret police come calling at midnight and he is taken away. It is never revealed who it was that denounced the father, and it doesn't even matter, as there are weighty themes the movie explores.
Worse is to come. At school the teacher denounces Vika, and demands she be expelled. She also demands that Iskra show her loyalty to the motherland, by being the one to denounce her friend. This is something Iskra refuses to do, despite mounting pressure on her in school, and from her own mother. The film is to be commended for showing the nuances involved, and the performance of Cherichenko in the key role of Iskra is nothing short of riveting, as we are left wondering from moment to moment whether she follow the examples of her mother and teacher and denounce her friends, or stand for what she believes in and follow the example of her principal, who is dismissed from his post for not toeing the party line.
There are no heavy interrogation scenes with faceless people representing the state. Images of Stalin are fleeting, his presence is felt more through association via Iskra's totalitarian mother and the demagoguery represented by her teacher, but it is always there lurking in the background. The dilemma faced by Iskra and the other students is weighty, and developed subtly, as we witness the struggle involved in the emergence of character, but it is character that emerges at a great cost and not without considerable pain along the way. A thoughtful and evocative movie with assured direction throughout and a wonderful soundtrack, it is a movie that will continue to reward with multiple viewings.
The story delves into the struggles of Iskra and Vika to reconcile their personal quest for freedom of expression and truth against the harsh backdrop of conformity to Stalin and the state as best exemplified by their teacher and Iskra's mother. Vika invites friends to her house and reads a poem from a decadent poet. An ideological conflict arises when Vika's father (Lyuberetsky) extols the virtues of freedom of expression to the girls and a few other members of the class. News of this soon reaches their teacher and Iskra's mother and he is soon denounced as an enemy of the state. The secret police come calling at midnight and he is taken away. It is never revealed who it was that denounced the father, and it doesn't even matter, as there are weighty themes the movie explores.
Worse is to come. At school the teacher denounces Vika, and demands she be expelled. She also demands that Iskra show her loyalty to the motherland, by being the one to denounce her friend. This is something Iskra refuses to do, despite mounting pressure on her in school, and from her own mother. The film is to be commended for showing the nuances involved, and the performance of Cherichenko in the key role of Iskra is nothing short of riveting, as we are left wondering from moment to moment whether she follow the examples of her mother and teacher and denounce her friends, or stand for what she believes in and follow the example of her principal, who is dismissed from his post for not toeing the party line.
There are no heavy interrogation scenes with faceless people representing the state. Images of Stalin are fleeting, his presence is felt more through association via Iskra's totalitarian mother and the demagoguery represented by her teacher, but it is always there lurking in the background. The dilemma faced by Iskra and the other students is weighty, and developed subtly, as we witness the struggle involved in the emergence of character, but it is character that emerges at a great cost and not without considerable pain along the way. A thoughtful and evocative movie with assured direction throughout and a wonderful soundtrack, it is a movie that will continue to reward with multiple viewings.
Decadent poets society (web)
leplatypus19 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This is surely not my opinion but the party line as told in the movie when Essenin's poem is read ! This benign event is the spark to dramatic ones : arrest of a helpful single father as a people enemy and the consecutive suicide of the daughter ! As it's happens with students who seeks their identity in a rigid school system, softened by an inspired newcomer, well you meet again all the themes of Dead Poets society ! So, as in space, Soviets were there first ! Maybe the great difference here is that the women who have the spotlight as friends in school, as director, as mothers...
This critical movie set before the great patriotic war is from 1987 and i suppose that without Perestroika, it could never had been released ! Anyway, it's good to rejoice with sweet and cute Natalia : in a way, she reminds me a bit of Noomi Rapace, except that she is more lively and friendly. This plunge into Russian films is particularly interesting as it's always new experiences with unseen places, people It's great to see that outside west, there is also quality and moving works as we can believe there is nothing else.. If your medias don't recommend it, i urge you to find it and you will be filled with smiles, cries and reflections
This critical movie set before the great patriotic war is from 1987 and i suppose that without Perestroika, it could never had been released ! Anyway, it's good to rejoice with sweet and cute Natalia : in a way, she reminds me a bit of Noomi Rapace, except that she is more lively and friendly. This plunge into Russian films is particularly interesting as it's always new experiences with unseen places, people It's great to see that outside west, there is also quality and moving works as we can believe there is nothing else.. If your medias don't recommend it, i urge you to find it and you will be filled with smiles, cries and reflections
Guilty for being a friend.
monsieurfairfax15 May 2020
'Tomorrow There Was War' is a story about children who were destined to perish in the midst of war and the Stalinistic terror regime. It is also about the conflict between generations, ideologies, and differences between being a citizen and being a human. The big question was raised - to whom one can stay loyal? To your friends or your country? Is it possible to be just and loyal to others while not betraying the other? With raising these questions the movie also gives them the answers.
We see the 9th graders who live in the belief that their country is fair and where everyone is equal, lose their innocence when they witness the terror of the regime at first hand. Attempts with first love and understanding poetry while also getting the smell of becoming an adult is suddenly stopped when bucked of harsh reality is thrown into their faces. They must stand up for what is right. Even if the system demands otherwise they can't thoroughly suppress the human feelings and curiosity. In the Stalinistic regime, curiosity killed. Also, showing any interests that didn't match with the official stance of the state, was dangerous.
The direction was low key, but not un-artistic. The story itself was so powerful that it didn't need any cinematographical novelties. I liked how the play between black and white and color cinematography symbolized the harsh reality and the hope in humanity. The best part was the powerful acting. Especially Irina Cherichenko as Iskra, (an activist of the Young Communist League who starts to see through the duplicitous system.) and Nina Ruslanova as her mother (a tough woman of principle and loyal member of the Party who starts to see that there are much more in the human than just the loyalty to the country).
This movie seems the be unfairly overlooked. That is unfortunate because besides the story and great acting it also gives a realistic picture of how it was to live under the Soviet regime before the war hit the soil of Mother Russia.
We see the 9th graders who live in the belief that their country is fair and where everyone is equal, lose their innocence when they witness the terror of the regime at first hand. Attempts with first love and understanding poetry while also getting the smell of becoming an adult is suddenly stopped when bucked of harsh reality is thrown into their faces. They must stand up for what is right. Even if the system demands otherwise they can't thoroughly suppress the human feelings and curiosity. In the Stalinistic regime, curiosity killed. Also, showing any interests that didn't match with the official stance of the state, was dangerous.
The direction was low key, but not un-artistic. The story itself was so powerful that it didn't need any cinematographical novelties. I liked how the play between black and white and color cinematography symbolized the harsh reality and the hope in humanity. The best part was the powerful acting. Especially Irina Cherichenko as Iskra, (an activist of the Young Communist League who starts to see through the duplicitous system.) and Nina Ruslanova as her mother (a tough woman of principle and loyal member of the Party who starts to see that there are much more in the human than just the loyalty to the country).
This movie seems the be unfairly overlooked. That is unfortunate because besides the story and great acting it also gives a realistic picture of how it was to live under the Soviet regime before the war hit the soil of Mother Russia.
a portrait
Kirpianuscus15 June 2018
...for a time, an age and a country. for Stalinism. precise, honest, simple. and, more important, useful. a film about young people. and the brutal discover of truth. about the nuances of an unique age. and the clash of freshness of youth against near reality. sepia sequences. definitions. traits of teens. love and happiness. and the message. sure, it is easy to analize the film from the perspective of Glasnost. but, in strange manner, that remains just a detail. it is a powerful film. for story, performances and cinematography. and that could be the lead motif for see it.
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