About

'But on the whole we simply wanted to show the times. And we wanted to avoid this vulgar way of stating everything so clearly. Such a vulgarity would be a discussion in the film about Stalin, or even a way of behaviour. We wanted to avoid all these clichés, and we wanted instead to dive deep into the lives of the people.' - Aleksei German

Once voted the greatest Soviet film ever made by a poll of national critics – a position affirmed by no less than Andrei Tarkosky – My Friend Ivan Lapshin is one of the major triumphs of Aleksei German’s career.

A loose adaptation of different stories written by his author father Yuri German, the film is set in a small regional town in 1935. The story is framed as the recollections of the son of a friend of the eponymous Ivan Lapshin (Andrei Boltnev), now recalling his childhood from his apartment in Moscow. Lapshin is a local detective who is investigating the sinister activities of a local gang. This narrative thread intertwines Lapshin’s burgeoning affection for Natasha (Nina Ruslanova), an actress in a visiting amateur theatre troupe, with the return of Lapshin’s friend Khanin (Andrei Mironov), who is hopelessly distraught after the recent death of his wife.

With My Friend Ivan Lapshin, German deliberately attempted to dispel the Soviet mythos around the mid-1930s, a period treated with reverent nostalgia in the USSR. German wanted to show a place where the seeds of impending catastrophe had been planted and would soon lead to purges, famine and repression.

Beyond the historical and political intrigue, the film is a technical marvel. German’s camera slithers through crowded communal apartments and down the town’s streets, with every set and costume painstakingly researched and fashioned by the filmmakers. The authenticity of this design blended with its elusive atmosphere gives My Friend Ivan Lapshin the feeling of a memory, of a time and place remembered but in a haze – of seeing history through a keyhole.