The Pencil (2019) User Reviews

Stunning, if modest, production; a brilliantly bleak story, if that's your bag.

[joachimokeefe · 10/10 · 21 December 2022]

Pretty, earnest metropolitan artist follows her political-prisoner husband to a prison in a part of Russia that perestroika, power supplies and the police forgot, to teach art in a school where 12-year-old(???!!! More like 24) Misha runs a protection racket. The story consists in Antoninya trying to resolve things with feral Russian yobbos and a talented pupil, while her incarcerated husband (and everybody else) tells her blankly to go home. Oh, and a desperate, creepy history teacher tries to force his attentions on her. Every supporting character is superbly portrayed, with dark, dark humour, like thick black coffee. Will Tonya's optimism beat the bullies, transform lives and win through?

As with most Russian dramas, there's a lot of scene-setting, as if you're at a theatrical production waiting for the main actors to appear. The payoff, you know, is going to be totally worth the wait. The Russians do this better than anyone.

So no specific spoilers, but if you're expecting a nice (bourgeois, comrades!) happy ending, you're in for a nose-dive. I loved it; and the political angle (they lie to us, we lie to them) is perfectly clear.

Bizarre and pointless

[qui_j · 2/10 · 12 May 2023]

This movie makes little sense. There is sparse dialogue, and absolutely no context of background that tells you anythings about the characters. One can get the gist of the story, but for the most p art, the scenes just seem disconnected from one another, and the dialogue appears to be heavily improvised. The movies has neither a satisfactory beginning, and even more unfulfilling end. It's as if the events just unfold, but without any purpose to their occurrence. The movie is just totally pointless and utterly bleak, pretty much like the surrounding landscape. One has to wonder why money is wasted to produce useless films like this!

Learning to look at the world

[hof-4 · 8/10 · 30 June 2023]

The scenario is a small town on the Karelian Peninsula. Most of the filming was done in Segezha, in the Karelia Republic, part of the Russian Federation, about 200 km from the Finnish border and 500km northeast of St. Petersburg. The film revolves around Antonina, an artist and and graphic designer from St. Petersburg. Her husband Sergei has been imprisoned (ostensibly for attacking a policeman but more likely for opposition to the regime). Antonina moves to the town where Sergei is serving time. She secures a job in the local high school as an art teacher.

The town sits in an area of melancholic beauty, where the frozen tundra alternates with lakes and vast forests. The town is dreary. Houses are in disrepair, provision of electricity is spotty and a skeleton police force is obviously unable to cope with local crime. The only source of work is a giant wood processing plant; one of its outputs are the simple pencils of the title. Antonina, whose enthusiasm is boundless, reveals itself as a natural art teacher. She awakens the vast reservoir of artistry, creativity and imagination present in every child, a reservoir that will remain untapped in absence of attention and support. We also see the therapeutic effects of art. Her attitude contrasts with that of her colleagues, most of them trying grudgingly to do their duties but burned out by the indifference and lack of support from the government and the town. The ending is purposely indefinite, oscillating between tragedy and hope. The pencils are perhaps a symbol for enlightenment, education, freedom.

Direction by Natalya Nazarova (who also wrote the script) is alternately lively or slow and deliberate. Supported by the outstanding cinematography of Andrey Naydenov, Nazarova has a talent (as Antonina in the movie) for opening our eyes to the beauty of living and inanimate things; human faces, the taiga, the forests, the fractal branching of dormant trees. Even the drab, dimly lit interiors, the piles of logs awaiting processing and the pencil making machines are imbued with a mysterious meaning, without contrived shots or trick lighting. Acting is excellent all around and includes both professionals and locals who have this film as their only credit. Last but not least, music is tasteful (Scarlatti) and sparingly used. Highly recommended.

The film is highly critical of the government and of living conditions in Russia. Yet, in one of the last screens we read that the movie was filmed "with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation." This runs counter to the idea (that the US mainstream media trumpet tirelessly) that Russia is a monolithic dictatorship.

Deeper Review of 'The Pencil'

[kenbond-39909 · 9/10 · 25 June 2023]

At first blush you might think what a dumb movie. However, giving it more thought, you change your mind, thinking, Hey, there's more here than I initially thought. Turns out, most of the schools other teachers are just slaves to the system, and cowards.

Our teacher heroine has strength of character, and artistic talent. She saves the talented little boy and enables his escape to St Pete, losing her life to Mischa's older bro. During the attempted escape. By helping Mischa, when he's injured, she earns his respect, and turns him against his destructive older bro.

Her death is appropriate...to memorialize her. She has accomplished everything she wanted to and, with her husbands death, what does she now have to live for?

Excellent movie ^^^^^

A Brilliant, Thought Provoking, Understated Film

[theaantoniaskindle · 10/10 · 19 August 2023]

I was transfixed by this wonderful film. The setting is incredibly beautiful in contrast to the town and it's suppressed and resigned population. A true teacher, a thoughtful and caring woman comes to the town because her husband, also an artist, has been wrongfully convicted of a crime. She still loves him and tries to cheer him but he is cold and distant. Instead she pours her love and deeply felt ideas of the emotions great art can convey into her teaching. The town seems incapable of dealing with a bully who has cowed the local population and who has an older brother who is a violent criminal who is about to be released from prison. This kind and caring woman is also brave and determined to see justice done. She is severely beaten by the brother. In the last shot, the young and talented student she tried to save is looking at someone on a boat out of this hellish place. So whether or not she survived the attack and can return to St. Petersburg is ambiguous. I chose to believe she did. I do not think the film is overtly political but rather a story about the choices people make and how fear can make life not worth living. It shows that to have a good, safe and rewarding life, one must also have ideals and courage and be willing to stand up to Injustice. Corruption takes many forms, most of them when good people stand by and let bullies win.