Mother and war

How to reveal the theme of the film "The Tale of the Mother" by A. Karpov and the story "Aklim" by Gabit Musrepov

"No one is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten" is a slogan, an oath to those who fell in the name of the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. Certainly, artists of all arts reflected on tragic events in the history of mankind, expressing their pain in paintings, poetry, prose, music, cinema and other forms of art.

The mother is the source of all living things, the beginning of beginnings, it is she who is the symbol of Peace. The mother's relationship with the war is especially sacred. War is a feminine word and a constant enemy of the mother, as eternal opposites: Life and Death, White and Black.

In my work, I decided to consider and disassemble the image of a mother during the war, through one of the novels by Gabit Musrepov and the military drama by Alexander Karpov, which will be discussed below.

The main film image of the Kazakh mother performed by Amina Umurzakova is embodied in the 1963 film "The Tale of the Mother". The director of the film knows firsthand what war is. Alexander Yakovlevich is a participant of the Great Patriotic War. In the work of the writer, playwright, public figure Gabit Musrepov, the image of a mother-woman occupies a dominant place. Of the eight short stories, three were dedicated to mothers who had borne the burden of the Patriotic War on their shoulders, such as "The Courageous Mother", "Mother's Revenge" and "Aklima" of 1943, which I took as the basis for a comparative analysis.

What unites these literary and cinematic works? The plot outline of these two works is based on a letter from his son from the front. "The Motherland is calling!" posters with slogans motivating heroism flash in the film. Brave young men go to the front to fight for their mother country, while their own mothers have to wait and hope that the war will end and their sons will return alive and unharmed. Every mother is waiting for a long-awaited letter. In "the tale of the mother", despite the fact that the main character is Tolganai, performed by the incomparable Amina Umurzakova, who without verbosity, accurately expressed all deep feelings with her eyes, still shows the power of unity of women mothers. All as one, more precisely, mother is a generalized name for all women who were waiting for husbands, children, engaged in work in the rear, supported each other and lived every day with hope.

"In those days, people quickly got closer to each other. It happened that one night brought them together for the rest of their lives," the novella says.

Mother Son

Tolganai Asan

Aklim Kasym

Ulbala Sapar

To be respectful in this difficult time is incredible courage. Despite the fact that Tolganai does not know how to read, he takes on such responsibility, thereby taking over the moral burden for himself. Without receiving a cherished letter from Asan's son, the woman distributes others' letters. In every notification she sees her Asana, every loss of a young fighter is perceived by her as the loss of her own son. Amina Umurzakova's sadly frozen look at the notification letters with a double exposure of frames with Asana remotely, but still resembles the effect of Lev Kuleshov, which conveys longing for her son and mother's excitement.

I would like to describe the scenes from the film where mothers find out that their sons have died. First scene: The Field. Tolganai, being an aul postman, brings a letter from the front for a friend. The scene is interesting because it is made in the style of a silent movie, nevertheless, the emotional and semantic excerpt of this scene is transmitted to the viewer more than clearly. The mother-woman had just received the letter, not knowing its contents, was delighted. And as a gift for the good news (suyinshi), she tries to remove the golden ring from her finger and give it to Tolganai. But then, getting acquainted with the letter, surrounded by other women, she begins to cry. That is, the viewer becomes a witness to the emotional gradation of the mother's feelings from the received news.

The black news about Tolganai's son is transmitted by the commander himself. One of the most psychologically powerful scenes of the film. The pace of this scene is unhurried, but it is this regularity, expressed by indecision, hesitation of the commander, the concentration of Tolganai's attention on him, increases the tension with every second. Mournfully and guiltily, the commander utters the phrase, like a knife to the heart of Tolganai: "I'm sorry, Mother." The next scene takes place in a field. An artistically verified scene with Tolganai running across the field away from the commander: retrospective shots of a mother and son, rapid background orchestral music, dark sky, increased wind, a lonely tree, half deprived of leaves – conveys all the sorrow of the mother's soul. But the mother does not give up. The war must end, which means she will work tirelessly in the rear. She, along with other women and old men, works hard in the field, the background sounds accompanying the actions of the rear resemble the sounds of firing guns, as if comparing them to the tools of the people.

In his work, Louis Delluc defended the concept of photogeny as a cinematic phenomenon and separate from photography due to the prevalence of internal content in it, which is carried by the actor, the subject, the landscape in the frame. He said that the person in the frame should not just be a beautiful object, but also assure the viewer in depth. Therefore, I would like to say that Amina Umurzakova brought sincerity and expressiveness to this image. Her expression said more than a word could do. There are a lot of close-ups of Tolganai in the film, focusing the lens on the piercing look of the actress to the depths of her soul.

After seeing Asan off to the front, the energetic mother suddenly appears before us as an old, exhausted woman. This expressive effect would not have worked if the look of the actress betrayed her real age. But Amina Umurzakova has aged literally before our eyes, having masterfully turned into a mother longing for her son.

Another equally important scene for the film is the meeting of the Mother of the murdered son with a German prisoner. They look at each other, and in a duel of looks, the German loses, unable to withstand the force of his mother's gaze, looks away.

In the finale, the soldier returns to the village, and all the residents, including Tolganai, look into the distance with a frozen heart to see the face of the approaching soldier. Tolganai hopes that her son Asan returns alive and unharmed.

It is the theme of the mother's hope that is raised in the story "Aklima". Despite the fact that the mother-woman has been notified of the death of her son Kasym for two years, she reads with exciting joy a new letter that came home to her from the front.

The actors are a soldier, Aklima and her neighbor-friend Nurila. The story is written in epistolary form: a letter from a soldier to his mother. It is read by Nurila for Aklima, in which he shares with the tragic consequences of the battle.

"Mom!" – that's how the soldier's letter began. "Mom" is a beautiful word that has flown all over the world.

Gabit Musrepov also draws the reader's attention to the mother's view:

«...Aklima listened. She lived every word of the letter, every intonation in Nurila's voice, followed every movement of the girl. Aklima's eyes, which had not yet lost their former attractiveness, reflected all her feelings and thoughts. These eyes then warmed with love for their son, then widened with fear for him, then closed their eyes with relief."

Both in the film and in the novel there are images of boys who carelessly play war, not realizing the severity of reality. A mother woman is against War! He does not wish the younger generation the hardships of war, because the older generation fought during the civil war, the younger generation is fighting in the Patriotic War, but the Mother will not allow war for the third generation.

Reading the letter, the women seemed to have been to that battle, shocked by the most terrible truth of the war. The tragedy that happened deprived the soldier of his legs, but not of the thirst for life. As it turned out, this letter is not addressed to her, Aklima, but to a completely different mother, not from her son Kasym, but from Sapar. His mother, Ulbala, died two years ago. Sapar is waiting for a letter from his mother, but only Aklim and Nurila know that there will be no reply letter from his mother. The mother's heart was agitated:

"... And again the words of the letter sounded clearly in Aklima's soul, the distant and strong voice of a soldier. How clear he was to her. But what to do? How to help Sapar? How can I write to him that his mother's arms will never embrace his wounded soldier's head, that he will never hear his mother's voice?".

At the same time, Aklima decides to write Sapar a letter from his mother, who is waiting for him. Aklima begins to accept the terrible truth that her son, Kasym, will not return.

The end of the story is similar to the ending of the film. Like Tolganai, Aklima is waiting for a soldier. "Every plane that flew over her house made her mother's heart beat harder. Maybe he's flying – her son, a soldier, her Sapar?".

The mother's soul is immense. Tolganai takes the orphaned boy Seryozha, Aklim – the orphaned soldier Sapar.