I’ve been looking back at Indie films from the 1990s I may have missed the first time around (I’m sure there are boatloads, since I was only a wee lad then and that was the zenith of great indie cinema). Anyway, I came upon Red Cherry (1995), a Chinese film released for the 50th anniversary of the “worldwide victory in the anti-fascism war.” It immediately intrigued me because it was about the Nazi occupation of Russia but from the perspective of two Chinese international students, so immediately multicultural and multi-perspective, certainly my cup of tea. The film was okay. It was pretty interesting to watch a communist film, meaning that I assume it was approved by the CCP and. it was done in a Eisenstein-like montage style some of the time, and depicted communist ideals and ideas. Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin is the only communist film I can recall seeing (unless you count Milos Foreman’s 1960s Czech satire Fireman’s Ball) so that was interesting in itself. The film flips between the experiences of the two young teens, one male and one female, their arrival at an international school in Russia fleeing the revolutionary war between the Maoists and KMT in China. They are apparently children of communist revolutionaries, so a priority to help if possible in Stalin’s Russia. Early on the kids have some randy adventures at school, then they are separated for the summer and the Nazis invade and make life hell for both of them in separate locations. As in Western films, the Nazis are completely evil throughout, although even more brutal than normal here. They commit unspeakable atrocities, which I’m sure were done, but Russian atrocities, which included shooting their own soldiers, aren’t depicted here. Except for one scene at the very end, the Russians are mostly depicted well, but there are realistic scenes of young military recruits being rejected by crowds and other crowds attacking thieving children, although both are consistent with “Social realism” I suppose. Life seems worse for the girl, who is only spared because a sadistic Nazi general takes an interest in her body, but not for the reason you would think. One of the strange things was that, other than a brief scene in the beginning where children make “Asian” eyes, there’s no racism against Asians depicted. I would think that, certainly for the Nazis with their despicable racial ideology/hierarchy, they would made something of the girl being the only Asian, but it’s never mentioned or depicted. There are comments throughout about their Asian-ness, but it’s mostly done in fun/with tenderness. Apparently the film is based on a real story, yet based on what I’ve read, the more brutal elements appear to be fictionalized, including a story about how the (I suppose Fascist) KMT brutally executed a communist revolutionary. Again, probably was done to some people, but apparently not to the person in question. In any case, the film does have a powerful conclusion, the acting is excellent and the film is memorable, and for me, at least, different than the usual.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114243/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4