Mosfilm: A Little Doll (1988) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Mosfilm

They say celebrity culture or professionalism in the arena of politics, music, film or particularly sports creates something of a disconnect for the celeb from within their Fabergé egg.  When the very thing you live for or have come to know suddenly drops out from under you, where do you go from there?  How would you react or press on?  Can you press on without the shame and humiliation of falling from grace doing you in?  

A common crisis within sports dramas, this very question is asked beautifully in films like Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Duet for One and in particular Isaak Fridberg’s 1988 Soviet-Russian gymnastics psychological drama/horror piece Kukolka translated into A Little Doll.  In a coming-of-age/sports film that unintentionally and ironically echoed the life story of its leading actress Svetlana Zasypkina, it’s a sustained unblinking regard for the unraveling of a young woman unable to adjust from her high lifestyle of a professional gymnast to ordinary high-school student and how such a shaky transition can prove fatal.

 
Tatyana Serebryakova (Svetlana Zasypkina) at the budding young age of sixteen years old is a professional gymnast and world champion in gymnastics frequently touring the globe when a routine warm-up session inflicts her with a debilitating spinal injury with her stern coach Vadim (Mosfilm legend Vladimir Menshov) urging her to press on anyway as it proves financially lucrative.  Upon closer inspection however she is forced to drop out sports altogether and is hastily sent back home to her mother where she goes back to school as an ordinary ninth grader.  

Still trained to be a ruthless go-getter in gymnastics, Tatyana applies this to her school setting and quickly becomes a formidable superior to her classmates who find themselves warming up to her including but not limited to taking on her beleaguered class teacher Elena (Irina Metlitskaya) who may or may not have had an illicit affair with one of her students.  Falling for her classmate Alexey (Dmitry Zubarev), the increasingly destructive and hostile Tatyana soon finds herself in existential crisis feeling her cards have been dealt with few other options left in a disturbing crescendo towards self-destruction.

 
Made during the perestroika era, based on Igor Ageev’s screenplay Unsportsmanlike Story and shot on Kodak Film by Beware of the Car cinematographer Vladimir Nakhabtsev which resulted in more intense rehearsals so fewer takes needed to be shot and given a downbeat electronic score by David Tukhmanov, A Little Doll is a searing character study and blistering critique of the mainstream sports arena as well as the dichotomy between celebrity and middle class cultural conflict.  A movie that functions as a coming-of-age story as well as a classroom examination ala Scarecrow or more recently The Student which also saw a breakdown between teacher and class, the film is notable for scenes at a video club showing Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead to a group of Russian teenagers, features startling performances from its young cast and a remarkable long-running soliloquy delivered by Irina Metlitskaya when it seems she may have backed herself into a corner with one of her students.  

Svetlana Zasypkina herself trained as a competitive gymnast until the age of sixteen and, like Tatyana, suffered a spinal injury and was forced to drop out, lending an additional layer of realism and authenticity to the proceedings.  Vladimir Menshov as the stern coach is maybe underutilized but definitely leaves an impression and Natalya Nazarova as Tatyana’s estranged mother is sure to evoke a measure of dogged sympathy for our conflicted heroine.  A striking shot near the end shows a Christ-like image our deeply troubled Tatyana clutching the bar of the gymnast bar, as though this profession she has strived for is her cross to bear.
 
Released in 1988 to Soviet cinemas, the film went on to win several international film awards including but not limited to West Berlin’s UNICEF and CIFZEH prizes, the 1990 All-Union Film Festival of Sports Films top prize and the Best Actress Award at the Paris Film Festival for Svetlana Zasypkina.  As a Michigander it was a minor delight seeing Sam Raimi’s timeless homegrown horror epic being screened overseas at a video club nearing the tail end of the Soviet Union.  

As a distinctly celebrity driven Russian sports drama which segues back into the classroom setting of ordinary citizens, it becomes a steadily scathing critique of the sports system unable to care for its performers properly and a school system unable to adjust to someone coming in who feels they are above the laws and rules of the teacher.  A film that poses more questions than it provides answers and eventually a startling, even horrific piece, A Little Doll is a powerful sports/coming-of-age drama that should be seen more widely outside its country of origin and take its rightful place alongside contemporary character studies of individuals in crisis doing what they love.

--Andrew Kotwicki