Kashchey the Immortal (1944)

directed by Aleksandr Rou
Russia (Soviet Union at the time)
73 minutes
3 stars out of 5
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This is pretty much a propaganda film that co-opts the narrative of an old folktale, except it's not even really co-opting so much as it is jamming nationalism into every nook and cranny. It isn't subtle about these nationalistic leanings, featuring many extremely dramatic and overacted songs about the beauty and splendor of Russian land that are often sung while wandering about on horseback or staring wistfully out a window and releasing doves into the air (where did these girls get doves from and why were they keeping them captive, anyway?). If you're more into the folktale side of this story, your enjoyment of this will depend largely on how much propaganda you like in your movies.

This film isn't even that great at retelling the story, or maybe I'm just too fond of the version told in Catherynne M. Valente's "Deathless" and I've been spoiled by a narrative where Maryna Morevna is not a helpless damsel in distress who must be saved from eternal slumber. This film seems to be more of a culture hero story, with very black-and-white notions of good/evil. It's very pretty, the sets are extensive and well-made and the actors certainly sing well, but it's just not the kind of thing that you can watch casually without smirking a little. It's not the factor of Russian pride that's silly here, there's nothing inherently wrong with that at all. It's just that this is all so outdated and whitewashed.

I do love the way they designed Kashchei, though. "Why won't you marry me? Check out this cool sword!" I love the look of him as a petulant old man who seems to have enjoyed power for too long. There's always been something different about him in the original tale, different from other villains who are either riotously inhuman or appear identical to the heroes but with darker coloring. This Kashchei looks like a sort of in-between. He reminds me of some villains from slightly earlier during the silent era. The addition of premium 1940s practical effects gives him a little bit of stop-motion uncanniness that adds to his charm (?).

This movie's age is extremely obvious from practically every aspect of it, especially the scenes in a poorly disguised caricature of a Middle Eastern country with people in various shades of brownface and various sizes of prosthetic nose; depicted as kooky, nonsensical religious zealots who bow a lot and eat rice all the time. I do lament that this wasn't filmed in color considering Russian Fantastika's long-standing reputation of being an absolute visual treat, but as far as black and white goes, things could have been worse. I think its racism is too blatant to make it anything more than a silly curiosity, but it's decent watching if you're curious about it in the first place and are prepared to disregard everything it implies about race.