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THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

DVA FYODORA

 Dva Fyodora original film poster
Original Soviet film poster



Title: Два Фёдора
Roman Transliteration of title: Dva Fyodora
English translation of title: The Two Fyodors
Year of Release: 1958
Director: Marlen Khutsiev
Country of Production: Soviet Union
Principal Boy Actors: Nikolai Chursin (Little Fyodor); there are a number of boys who are Fyodor's friends, of whom the most important is Arseniy, played by Yura Yelin, who becomes his best friend.
Genre: Drama
Length: 1 hr 29 min
Language: Russian
Availability: A digital file is available. A blu-ray was released in Russia, but the version on the blu-ray is idiotically censored with a portion of the image very obtrusively blurred in a particular scene in order to obscure the genitalia of one of the boys.
English subtitles: Available from opensubtitles.org. The subtitles uploaded by 'diogenes' are the most accurate and intelligible.

Synopsis and Commentary
Returning from victory in the Great Patriotic War, a soldier adopts an orphan boy who happens to share his name. The 'two Fyodors' support each other, until the bigger Fyodor becomes interested in a girl, making little Fyodor jealous. Is little Fyodor going to find himself abandoned and orphaned a second time?

Dva Fyodora Polish poster Polish title translates as Be My Son
Polish film poster. The Polish title of the movie translates as Be My Son.

The film begins with shots of trains of soldiers returning home, but the mood of euphoria and triumphalism is quickly undercut when a peasant woman accuses a boy of stealing a piece of bread, and the grim reality of the life they are returning to henceforth forms the backdrop of the narrative. In some ways, the film may seem like Italian neorealism, in its subject matter, its outdoor filming and its foregrounding the material deprivations of life. However, in contrast to neorealism, the mood of the film is optimistic. The boy stealing bread is little Fyodor, a survivor and wanderer, whose own father was killed in the war. The older Fyodor is taciturn, stoic and perhaps prone to melancholia. The two characters are drawn to each other, and we see in the earlier scenes that the boy looks after the man as much as, or even more than, the other way round. When the older Fyodor returns to his devastated home, his neighbours offer him shelter in their own homes (which he declines). And the whole community pulls together to rebuild its destroyed city. So this film is about the possibility of love, generosity and laughter even among the ruins. The music of the film, and the way the film is shot, contribute to an impression of lyricism and sunlight. Little Fyodor at one point says "the sun is so bright, it's burning my eyes", which could be taken as the motto for the film as a whole. The film's ending is one of the most beautiful endings of any movie.

There seem to be a couple of slight incongruities in the movie. In a scene where the younger Fyodor looks up at what is supposed to be the moon, and realises that the older Fyodor has been striken with love for a girl, it seems to be the sun rather than the moon that is being filmed through the clouds. Maybe the director found filming the moon technically impossible. Another slight oddity is that the older Fyodor rejects a stolen chicken, insisting that he is a working man and therefore does not condone stealing; but in a different scene he seems tolerant of the boys taunting a girl for the ease with which they are able to steal her crops.

Below: contemporary lobby photos
(Editor's personal collection)

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 1

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 2

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 3

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 4

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 5

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 6

Dva Fyodora lobby photo 7


Screenshots

Dva Fyodora 1   Dva Fyodora 2

Dva Fyodora 3   Dva Fyodora 4

Dva Fyodora 5   Dva Fyodora 6

Dva Fyodora 7   Dva Fyodora 8

Dva Fyodora 9   Dva Fyodora 10

Dva Fyodora 11   Dva Fyodora 12

Dva Fyodora 13   Dva Fyodora 14

Dva Fyodora 15   Dva Fyodora 16

Dva Fyodora 17   Dva Fyodora 18

Dva Fyodora 19   Dva Fyodora 20

Dva Fyodora 21   Dva Fyodora 22

 

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