The Servant (1989)

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Movie
German title The servant
Original title Слуга
Country of production USSR
original language Russian
Publishing year 1989
length 136 minutes
Rod
Director Vadim Abdrashitov
script Alexander Mindadze
production Mosfilm
music Vladimir Dashkevich
camera Denis Yevstigneyev
cut Rosa Rogatkina
occupation

The servant , (Original title: Слуга , Sluga ) is a Soviet feature film directed by Vadim Abdraschitow from the year 1989 .

action

An older, less well-dressed gentleman sits in a bus and lets himself be dropped off in a forest in the middle of the route. Then he walks through the forest to the house of the famous conductor Pavel Sergejewitsch Kljujew, looks through his window and walks back towards the street. Here he is taken as a hitchhiker with the conductor's Volga , who recognizes him as his former boss, Andrei Andreevich Gudionov, the high official of a Soviet ministry. After the driver had to get out and continue on foot, the two men start a conversation and find each other after driving through a tunnel about 20 years earlier.

It's the ride on which they both get to know each other. Gudionow, who is being driven to a ceremony by Pavel, explains to him that he has personally chosen him as his new driver and is therefore almost certain that he was not assigned to him. Pavel, who, like his chief, served in the airborne troops , assured him that he would serve Gudionov and make his habits his own. He already experiences the strange habits of his boss in the hotel in the evening, when he tries to teach a football team to dance in full playing clothes, only because they have lost their games several times. The next morning, it is Pavel's turn to dance with him after breaking a tooth on a piece of gold that was hidden in a chocolate candy. One day he follows his boss into a concert hall where a large choir is rehearsing. Since Gudionow is allowed to speak a power word here and he is not satisfied with the singing, he simply sends the conductor off the stage because of his inability. Pawel no longer holds it in his seat and he takes on the feeling of directing what works out well for the first time.

Twenty years later, Pavel comes home after a concert and hears from his son that there is a slightly confused man sitting in his study who claims that this is his house. Pawel confirms this statement, but does not want to comment on it and goes to the man to talk to him. This man is Gudionow and wants to stay there for a few days because someone from this area is making life difficult for him. It is Brysgin who has been following him all his life and now wants to prove to him with a long-forgotten traffic accident that he should have caused it. His own driver was to blame for the accident and served his sentence for it. Before Pawel puts his former boss to bed, they talk about his wife, who is currently on a cure. The next day, Pawel visits former colleagues, by whom he is always called the Jackal , from the driver's office at his ministry to talk to them about the accident. Also with Mikhail, the driver of Brysgins, who after the conversation chases his dog on Pawel, because he is convinced that it was Pawel who deliberately put the accident-causing dump truck on the road to kill Brysgin. It is becoming more and more clear to Pawel that at that time he had read and carried out Gudionov's thoughts, which he explained to him at home and he recognized that he was his slave . A visit to Brysgin's home for the elderly brings more clarity, because he has a dossier on the activities of Pawels, which he did for his boss in order to keep unpleasant competitors off his neck. Gudionov did not order extortion, bribery, provocation and other crimes against him, but Pavel guessed what he wanted because he wanted to be a devoted servant to his master.

Looking back again, you see both of them doing a parachute jump, which they promised to strengthen their friendship. During their return to civilization, they take a break in the canteen of a village, where Gudionow believes he recognizes a former friend in the laundress Maria, who is taken away by both of them because he still loves her even though he is married. One day Gudionow asks his driver to marry Maria, because he cannot chain his life to hers, he has a calling and still wants her to be happy. To make things easier for Pavel, he gave him the choir and his house. He then no longer needs to work as a driver and can devote himself fully to conducting, because his boss no longer needs him, because he has been promoted very high and will move to another city and Maria agrees with the regulation. After his first big concert, in which Maria and Gudionow also sit and listen to the singing, they take Gudionow to the train station and say goodbye.

Years later, Pavel waits in front of Gudionov's new office to tell him about the summons he has received, but he can no longer remember his past. He doesn't even want to know a Brysgin anymore and he remembers Pawel only faintly. To help his former boss, who has meanwhile been disempowered, he kidnaps Brysgin from his home and drives him to Gudionov, but when he looks into the car, he only finds one dead person in the back seat of the car. With difficulty Pawel made it to the concert hall in the evening to conduct his choir. while the hall exits are cordoned off by civilian police officers.

Production and publication

The film, shot in color, premiered in the Soviet Union in July 1989 under the title Slug .

As early as February 1989, Der Diener was shown in the competition program during the 39th Berlin International Film Festival .

The film premiered in the GDR on June 25, 1990 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin .

criticism

In the West-Berliner Zeitung of SEW Die Truth of February 16, 1989, Hans-Günter Dicks said that the film was very worth seeing, but not suitable for the masses.

Dieter Strunz writes in the Berliner Morgenpost on February 16, 1989 that this is a serious and honorable film that deals with accounting with old dependencies.

The Lexicon of International Films writes that this would be a symbol-laden film full of religious quotes and haunting sacred music.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neue Zeit of June 22, 1990, p. 12
  2. ↑ The servant. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 13, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used