Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead (2007) User Reviews

Excellent and compelling.

[tim-1379 · 9/10 · 20 September 2007]

An amazing story about some remarkable people living in extreme times. This documentary is very well made and compelling. The director speaks about a fictional version he might like to do one day and I would look forward to that!! Garri Urban's story is truly inspiring and scary. Great fodder for an action film.

The pace of the film is very strong. I loved the editing. The layered way the filmmakers introduced characters before telling us exactly how they fit into the story and situations works well in allowing us to change our feelings about those characters. The viewer is on a journey, finding out what really happened. What is true!? Many questions only lead to more mystery and reveal that the truth may be out there, in more ways than one, but can we ever really reach it?

Tovarisch shows that even if we can never know the whole truth with certainty, the search is worth it. The truth is worth chasing, no matter how painful or surprising.

Beautiful, Haunting and Amazingly Put Together Documentary

[robertjuster · 9/10 · 15 May 2020]

This film is exactly why I love documentaries. The very best docs transport you to a world outside your own, rich with beauty and pain and human struggles - Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead does this so very well. Excellently put-together and edited, what a beautiful, haunting story!

What a story...

[jimlewisjr · 8/10 · 17 April 2020]

Have you ever met someone that is bigger than life? This film is about one such person. It is like a home movie on steroids that is tells an incredible true story. The mysterious history of father told by a film maker son. Years of footage, lots of research and solid editing takes you on journey that keeps giving more and more.

Powerful and inspiriting story about a Russian-Jewish renaissance man...

[info-2276 · 10/10 · 20 January 2007]

There is no question that Stuart Urban is a talented filmmaker and a great person. But what inspires a filmmaker is partially due to reality of people's actions, and sometimes reality is much more powerful than fiction.

This is a real story of Garri Urban, a distinguished Russian-Jew who, like many others of the Stalin era, was persecuted by the KGB, but like so few managed to break free from their iron fist. Fifty years after his captivity and escape, his son Stuart Urban does a documentary on his late father's life. They re-visit the harsh places where Garri was a beaten, tortured, and brutalized.

The story reveals Garri as a highly intelligent man who spoke ten languages, was asked to start a career in acting because of his great looks and charisma, but also sought-after by the KGB for his valuable use of German.

This story shows us who this man is by giving details about his personal life, his respect towards women, his love for his mother, and his iron-willed determination not to be intimidated by the tactful KGB officers.

The filmmaker and his father visit Moscow, Tashkent, and Ivana Frankofs, a small town in Ukraine to uncover missing files, and re-visit Garri's old home.

This film has an amazing grasp of Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish culture. But even more so, it's about an inspiring person who has all the qualities of a great leader and a great man, whom we all can learn from!

Unfortunately, Garri did not live to see the completion of Stuart's documentary, but his life story deserves recognition, and he will continue to live and inspire us in this wonderful work.

Thank you!

An epic recount of an incredible man's life

[twomasters · 10/10 · 26 August 2015]

This is one of the rare occasions when watching documentaries that I was fascinated throughout. Jaw-droppingly dramatic and emotional, it reveals, as another reviewer has already said, the human spirit in its best form.

The man in question, Garri Urban, is one of the most fascinating people I've seen in this kind of film. Ruthless, stubborn, serious, emotional, forgiving, fearless...a man of true courage with some brilliant meditations on life, my favourite being "God is in your body: being good, being kind to people. Don't exploit people - don't rob people of the world for you". The maker and narrator of the account, his son Stuart, must have had a difficult task seeing his father in such moments of recollection, but remains professional and composed throughout.

This doc has everything, from stories of torture to the reunion with a lost lover not seen in decades. Outstanding.