city Novocherkassk: Last News

In 1962, a group of striking factory workers was massacred in the industrial Russian town of Novocherkassk. The shocking event, and the ensuing cover-up, is explored in intimate and meticulous detail by veteran filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky in Dear Comrades!, this year’s submission from Russia to the International Feature Oscar race.

At first glance, it would be easy to think the forthcoming drama, “Dear Comrades!” was somehow lost to time back in the ‘60s and restored in 2020 for all to see. Maybe that’s due to the black and white cinematography and the classic aspect ratio.

Andrei Konchalovsky’s acclaimed historical drama Dear Comrades! is inspired by the true story of a state-sponsored massacre in the Russian city of Novocherkassk in the early 1960s.

Neon has picked up the U.S. rightsto Andrei Konchalovsky’sDear Comrades!,which is set to be Russia’s official Oscars submission.

Dave McNary Film ReporterNeon has acquired U.S. rights to Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades!” on the heels of the film being announced as Russia’s official submission for the upcoming Academy Awards.The film is set in 1962 as the Communist government raises food prices, triggering a strike by rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorNEON has taken U.S. rights to Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades!, which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVenice’s Special Jury Prize-winning “Dear Comrades!,” a Russian historical drama directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, has been sold by Films Boutique to Southern Europe.“Dear Comrades!” was acquired for Italy by Paolo Del Brocco at Rai Cinema and for Spain by the Barcelona-based distributor Vercine.The film, which sheds light on the Novocherkassk massacre, was produced, co-written (with Elena Kiseleva) and directed by Konchalovsky, a revered and now veteran Russian auteur who is best-known for directing “Runaway Train,” “Duet For One” and “House Of Fools.”Shot in black and white, the politically-minded film retells the tragic events of 1962, when the Soviet Union military opened fire on workers from a

June 1962: Novocherkassk, the USSR. The halcyon days of Stalin’s premiership, where meat rations were plentiful and cigarettes easy to come by, are over.

Jessica Kiang How do you commemorate a shameful history long suppressed? One way is to render it in black and white images so stark there’s nowhere for the shame to hide, a feat achieved with stunning clarity by Andrei Konchalovsky’s perversely beautiful and coldly furious “Dear Comrades!” (exclamation point ironic). Meticulous and majestic, epic in scope and tattoo-needle intimate in effect, this scrupulous recreation of the lead-up to and aftermath of the Novocherkassk massacre six decades ago is excoriating proof that not all filmmakers are made sloppy or slipshod by anger.