In this seemingly ordinary world, mindless violence rules. In Tamkovich’s case, it does not have a single face – for in Under the Grey Sky, the director does not bring to life the figure of the classic antagonist who embodies the brutal regime. His presence and power are dispersed here – the machinery of the regime is masked OMON officers, judges handing down verdicts in accordance with the order of the authorities, and, finally, servile informers or officials who are, after all, only following orders.
But it is not the political and journalistic content that drives Tamkovich’s film. Under the Grey Sky is first and foremost a touching melodrama, a story about love that has no price and that forces one to make compromises. In the drama, which is played out by the characters of Ilya and Lena, the director poses fundamental questions. Is it man’s duty to fight for freedom? Or is individual opposition meaningless? Is it possible to sacrifice love in the name of political struggle? Isn’t that a kind of betrayal?
Her film is more than a simple story about a courageous journalist and a desperate husband. Tamkovich does not run away from difficult findings – not least when she shows that behind the heroic struggle against the regime there is also a selfish need for heroism, and that the hunger for recognition and fame not only does not cancel out idealism, but is actually an inalienable part of it.
