Despite the presence of railroads and trains in Russian culture throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, it has been many years since Russian cinema has produced a strong “train movie.” There can be no mistake that this is the film’s primary generic orientation: in place of the (until recently) ubiquitous financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the reportedly $12 million budget of The Edge was financed largely by the Russian State Railroad, which seems to have required from the film little more than a peculiar style of product placement. The action of the film is set in September 1945, The Edge only several months after the victory of the [Край] USSR over Nazi Germany. The film’s protagonist, Ignat, served as a tank driver during Russia, 2010 that war, but his service in a tank followed a Color, 119 minutes recklessly daring stint as a train engineer. Russian with English subtitles Having arrived at Krai, Ignat remains a Russian Director: Aleksei Uchitel' man of iron with a single-minded determination Script: Aleksandr Gonorovskii to realize himself by driving and racing Cinematography: Iurii Klimenko locomotives along the “iron roads” of Russia’s Design: Vera Zelinskaia great expanse. Trains of several different Music: David Holmes vintages and in various states of disrepair Cast: Vladimir Mashkov, Anjorka Strechel, Iulia constitute a secondary, non-human cast of Peresil'd, Sergei Garmash, Aleksei characters. As the trains repeatedly go beyond Gorbunov, Viacheslav Krikunov, Aleksandr their technical limitations of speed and Bashirov endurance, the film suggests that the trains Producer: Konstantin Ernst overcome their mechanical limitations through a Production: Rock Films and Studio Teleshow kind of metaphysical bonding with their (with financial support from Russian State engineers. Uchitel' emphasizes the “personality” Railroad) of the trains repeatedly and in various ways: the conflation of the name of one train with the We must understand the title in several identity of the NKVD officer in charge of it, the different ways in order to appreciate fully the naive reaction of one young girl that an old significance of this film. Edge [Krai] is both the abandoned locomotive is nevertheless “alive,” name of the settlement and its geographical and the much too heavy-handed symbolism of location. It is located at the edge of navigable smoke, the color of which marks the moral space, beyond which there is “no place else to character of each locomotive/engineer tandem. go.” The word also suggests the edge of Yet despite the importance of the film’s civilization, the furthest point from the center— genre markers and overall rhythm, this is all Moscow. We learn early in the film that the somewhat extraneous to the notion of the edge, population of Krai is made of up outcasts pushed without which the film would amount to nothing off to the edge of the social body. In both the much more than an ambitious but ultimately geographical and social coordinate systems, the forgettable train movie. Despite the word thus designates a limit up against which overwhelming physical presence of the one can press or be pressed. Finally, we can locomotives, the film nevertheless directs our also understand the word in reference to human attention to the very human characters in and character—the people who populate the film are around them. Human relations and relationships in various ways “pushed to the edge”: to the have, after all, been one of the enduring themes limits of their strength, of their sanity, of their of this director at least as far back as His Wife’s abilities, and of their very humanity. This latest Diary. The first thirty minutes of the film film by Aleksei Uchitel' is about all of these introduce us to Ignat, a profoundly damaged things. It is also about trains. individual (he has suffered several concussions exception to this generally positive feature of the in the war), and follows his initial difficult film is the behavior of the collective personality introduction to the settlement populated by of the laborers. If this collective forms any kind people treated as “damaged” goods by the State. of identity, its radical changeability from hateful Krai, as it turns out, has been settled with rejection of Elsa to fierce defender of the same is enemies of the people, which in 1945 included unconvincing and leaves the viewer with a most anyone who had the misfortune to live troubling uncertainty about whether the human under German occupation during the war. The virtues of solidarity and compassion retain any settlement is one large labor army, producing integrity at the level of the social, to say nothing lumber for the State. Hardened by their of the political. Although we are reminded experiences during and after the war, both Ignat several times that Russians never hurt cripples, and the laborers have adapted to a dog-eat-dog we are reminded even more often that this system of ethics in which one’s fellow human society of outcasts greets every new arrival with beings are seen largely in terms of how they can a “lousy welcome.” satisfy one’s own needs. Ignat quickly deprives The Russian Film Academy in 2010 the local train engineer of both his job and his awarded The Edge four “Golden Eagles”: for woman, and finds himself as an outcast in a Best Director (Uchitel'), Best Lead Actor society of outcasts. His irrepressible drive and (Mashkov), Best Lead Actress (Strechel), and ambition lead him further out toward the edge, Best Supporting Actress (Peresil'd). where he seeks and finds his own locomotive and, as part of the bargain, a German girl, Elsa, Gerald McCausland who has been hiding in the wilderness since before the war began. As Elsa is rejected by the Aleksei Uchitel' (b. 1951) Soviet laborers, the working relationship Aleksei Uchitel' was born in Leningrad and, between Ignat and the German girl begins to despite residing in Moscow, still considers St. grow into affection and, ultimately, love. Elsa Petersburg his home. In 1975 he graduated from puts her desire into concrete terms when she the department of cinematography of the State expresses the wish to see Ignat smile. She Institute of Filmmaking (VGIK). He first made achieves this feat only once during the action of his mark as a documentary filmmaker before the film, but the unexpected and incongruent turning to feature films in the 1990s. In 1992 he achievement of this feat makes the smile much became the artistic director of Rock Films, more than simply an expression of affection. It where he continues to direct and produce feature marks the complex relationship between films. He is the recipient of numerous prizes for personal and group identity. his films, and in 2001 was honored with the title Ultimately, the significance of the “People’s Artist of Russia.” “edge” (and of The Edge) derives from the way that this outer limit is defined by the status of the Selected Filmography outcast. We come to understand how the outcast Note: A complete filmography would include can be both victim and perpetrator. The film’s some 20 documentary films dating back to the treatment of this idea is subtle and sensitive to early 1970s. the moral ambiguities of life “on the edge,” and it is remarkable that Uchitel' manages to avoid 2010 The Edge moral judgments in his characterizations. 2008 Captive Neither Ignat, Elsa, or any of the major 2005 Dreaming of Space characters in the film (with the possible 2003 The Stroll exception of “Fishman” as portrayed by 2000 His Wife’s Diary Garmash) is marked as simply positive or 1995 Giselle’s Mania negative. Despite the damage done to them by 1993 Butterfly (documentary) war and political repression, these very human 1990 Lateral Canal (documentary) beings are capable of both cruelty and 1987 Rock (documentary) compassion, ruthlessness and heroism. Their inconstancy bears witness to their capacity for growth and development. The one problematic .