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Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. 1111111111 ■ 111111 u ■e■■■■■i Vim 1 111 mo■■■■■o. ms111111111Mirosor milowasenemill• - eummummile , SERVING BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER HOME-MADE COOKING TRAY CATERING FOR YOUR NEXT AFFAIR OUR SPECIALTY Give every NEWBORN the advantage 81y. Fac. Lunches • Dinners • Sunday Brunch • Cocktails Beautiful Banquet Facilities Reservations 642-6900 725 South Hunter Birmingham • GREAT SITE SUPPERS SAL!!! PrE0 YPON 82 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1988 • • • Support the March of Dimes BIPIH DI I K I; I OuNDAIION Pictured in a scene from "Commissar" are, from left, Raisa Niedashkovskaya, Nonna Mordyukova and Rolan Bykov. 'Commissar' Film Took 20 Years To Be Released AVIVA KEMPNER Special to The Jewish News T he commercial release of Alexander Askol- dov's Commissar is one of the positive cultural ef- fects of glasnost. Shot in 1967, Commissar was shelved for 20 years because the director stubbornly refused to change the Jewish-themed plot to comply with censorship. Based on the story A City of Berdish by Vasily Grossman, the film contains a simple story. A female commander, who is leading a unit during the Civil War, finds herself too advanced in her unplann- ed pregnancy to lead the fighting and must seek refuge to await the birth of her child. A poor Jewish family becomes her reluctant host until her child is born. And in the end, the commissar must fact the classic female dilem- ma of choosing between motherhood and the patriotic duty of her country. Although the story does not possess a complicated plot, Askolodov's screenplay adap- tation and directing has created a black and white film, rich with symbolism, surrealism and allegory. The audience is constantly challenged to interpret and draw conclusions about the director's purposes in the in- tercutting of certain vivid im- agery and political themes. For example, the birth of the commissar's baby is brilliant- ly interwoven with battle scenes and horses running. The camera work by Valeri Ginzberg and musical score Former Detroit filmmaker Aviva Kempner is working on a documentary about baseball great Hank Greenberg. by Alfred Schnittke are superb. Although the film takes place in 1922, the film con- tains many references and scenes for foreshadowing the Jewish fate during World War II. The head of the Jewish household, Yefim Mazaga- nick, portrayed both playful- ly and poignantly by Rolan Bykov, states on several occa- sions his pessimism about their future. In one of the most powerful scenes of the film, Askolodov depicts our female commissar coming across a round-up of Jews with yellow stars marching to their death. The portrayal of Jews is slightly stereotypical in the beginning, but ends up positive as the Jewish family is seen in a loving and caring light. When the commissar, Klavidia Vavilova, played powerfully by Nonna Mor- dyukova, first comes to the family, she embodies the tough and committed woman persona. The portrayal of Yefim appears equally stereotypical as he is shown as a weak, suffering Jewish man. He dances in the morn- ing in a Thvye-like routine and cites lines that sound like lines from Sholom Aleichem. As the family is first in- troduced to her, his worries are over having enough food and room. But as the pregnancy progresses the family comes to adapt to the intrusion of their "foreign visitor?' By the time the child is born a friendship is also nurtured between the com- missar and her host family. She softens in motherhood and Yefim becomes more of a philosopher and less of a caricature. The wife, Mariya, performed by the beautiful Raisa Nedashkovskaya, keeps