Commissar

During the Russian civil war, Klavdia Vavilova, a Commissar of the Red Army, finds herself pregnant and sheltering with a Jewish family in a small town in Ukraine.

Revolutionary feminism and fears of a traditional Jewish community, themes of motherhood and war, utopia and reality clash as the front lines draw closer.

Starring legendary actors Rolan Bykov and Nonna Mordyukova, with music by Alfred Shnitke, based on a short story by Vasily Grossman. Its controversial themes caused the film and its director to be banned in the Soviet Union for more than 20 years, until the film was finally restored and released in 1988.

Russian, with English subtitles.

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