Varlam Shalamov - Several of My Lives

Several of My Lives

An autobiographical movie about Varlam Shalamov was directed by Alexandra Sviridova. It is a documentary movie in somewhat gloomy settings where the narrator, acting as Shalamov himself, describes life after the October Revolution by simply reminiscing the facts in chronological sequence as they occurred to him.

The movie starts with a scene that shows a labor camp cemetery with simple wooden sticks placed in the ground to mark burial and can covers hanging from them. The narrator says: "Everybody has died." Then he lists the people who he meant under the everybody. The list is somewhat interesting as some of these people were very famous in their time, later, as well as the narrator, they were sent to the camps.

  • Nikolay Barbe - the organizer of the Russian Komsomol was shot for being unable to accomplish the Plan (Five-Year Plan)
  • Dmitriy Orlov - Kirov's referent
  • Semen Sheinin - economist
  • Ivan Fediakhin - the organizer of the first kolkhoz in Russia and for organization of which he was sentenced
  • Fritz David - Dutch communist, the member of the Comintern, lost his mind out of hunger
  • Yukin - the brigadier of peasants was shot together with his brigade at the Serpentine route

Then the narrator states that he has a great doubt whether anybody would be interested in this sad story of the stomped soul. He says that he has lived 70 years, 20 of which he spent in camps and exile. Then he goes onto his, Shalamov's, autobiography.

Read more about this topic:  Varlam Shalamov