Rent Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead (2007)
3.0 of 5 from 47 ratings
1h 23min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Garri Urban was born in the shtetl (the Jewish rural community) in 1916, A survivor of both the Holocaust and the Soviet Gulag be overcame adversity through a mixture of charm, aggression, luck and perseverance. Eventually arriving in England to rebuild his life. In 1992 Garri decides to return to Russia to research his life and in doing so try to make sense of it. He is accompanied by his son, film-maker Stuart Urban, who with camera in hand decides to document the journey. What they discover is a remarkable story of survival, a story that encapsulates a century in the life of a single man. The revelations and surprises begin almost at once, when Garri finds he is still listed as an "international spy" on the wanted list! Eventually Garri tracks down his KGB file but the authorities refuse to release details about his life which, they tell Stuart, "would make his hair stand on end". As Stuart questions his father and then goes in search of more answers once his father has died, the film shifts from being a biographical documentary into a probing analysis of identity, and transformation, a rolling narrative whose chapters bring fresh surprises at every turn. - Actors:
- Anne Applebaum, Noka Kapranova, Garri Urban, Menachem Urban, Stuart Urban
- Directors:
- Stuart Urban
- Studio:
- Artefact Films
- Genres:
- Documentary
