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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 17 January 2008

Pick of the Indies

“I’VE got f***ing great big Jewish balls,” states Garri Urban to his son Stuart as he steps into the former KGB prison where he was tortured during the 1940s.
And as you watch this moving documentary about the Polish Jew who escaped first the Nazis and then a Soviet gulag, you can’t help but agree.
Tovarisch – I Am Not Dead charts the life and times of Garri, and is told by his film-maker son Stuart. Garri wrote his autobiography in 1980 and Stuart uses this as a basis for the film. He seeks to discover what is in his KGB file. But it’s not all about the effect international politics had on an individual (although there’s plenty of that, including a scene where Garri stands at the grave of Nikita Krushchev and laughs at the fact he out-lived the former USSR premier).
Garri, returning to Russia after 50 years, tracks down an old girlfriend and has an emotional reunion with her. Garri left her waiting all these years after popping out for cigarettes and getting arrested by the KGB for anti-Soviet activities.
Above all, the film reveals an intriguing life. Garri is a character with a story to tell. But it is also about a son considering his father’s life.
Stuart unpicks his relationship with his father and this is what will move you.

• Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead, Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, Sunday, January 27.
020 8444 6789, followed by a Q&A session with the director

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