MWFF 2016: Contribution

CONTRIBUTION

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Sergey Snezhkin
COUNTRY: Russia; 100 min
LANGUAGE: Russian, English subtitles

Loosely based on the story by Leonid Yuzefovich "Contribution".


Official Synopses:

"In Siberia, in 1918, an investigator of the Red Army sentenced to death must find a precious diamond that has mysteriously disappeared for a chance to be pardoned by the White Army."

This is a suspense film set in a historical period of the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War. It takes place in 1918 in the city of Perm as it had just been captured from the Reds by the Central Siberian White Guard Corps under the command of a young General Anatoly Pepelyaev. His army is exhausted, it has no supplies, ammunition, uniforms, or food. To resolve the problem, the General invites the Perm merchants to ask them for the money for his army. Each is ordered to provide a specific sum in gold, refereed to (in a psychological twist of the meaning) as a contribution rather than an expropriation.

A rich widow Chagin brings her "contribution", an expensive 140 carats diamond. The next day, the diamond mysteriously disappears. In order to solve this mystery, the Red Army investigator Andrei Murzin, condemned to death by a firing squad, is asked to find the precious stone by a certain hour in exchange for a pardon. 

The film's suspense line, and the type of an arrangement where all the suspects are kept together at the same location for questioning, resemble Agatha Crystie stories, this likeness further intensified by the lavish palace-like setting and some similar period costumes. But then the similarities part. This film's plot also shows some horrors and excesses of the Russian Civil war and the senseless ideas-based imprisonment and executions.

The filmography uses brownish, at times black and white tones, especially at the beginning of the film, as to resemble old, faded photographs. This also helps to create the sense of the historical past, and a certain mood of the old-era memory reflections. The plot has a few intriguing twists and a keen sense of suspense that many spectators will find compelling to watch.