THE LEAD BRIGADE (Îëîâíà áðèãàäà)
Movie from: 1980
Duration: 115 minutes
Director: Kiril Cenevski
Screenplay: Kiril Cenevski
Leading Roles: Kole Angelovski, Dancho Chevrevski, Darko Damevski, Ilija Dzuvalekovski, Aco Jovanovski, Meto Jovanovski,
Blagoja Spirkoski – Dzumerko, Pavle Vuisic, Milja Vujanovic, Miralem Zupchevic
Content: Winter in a mine settlement. The work in the mine is running at the usual pace. The mining engineer Lazar is also
among the miners in the mineshaft. A miner, called The Major, is distributing the couples for mining. The warning sirens sound the alarm,
interrupting the mine work. Coming for work from nearly villages three miners are covered with snow somewhere in the mountains. All of
the miners are ready to help but they arrive too late for one of them. One of the mineshafts is closed down for work as it is considered
to be too dangerous. Particularly it is the deposits, which should be used, in solar experiments. The engineer Lazar is a young man and
a man of principles who represents and supports the miner's interests. In the mine head office he speaks about the unsuitable conditions
under which the miners work, as well as about their low wages. But his complaints do not touch the manager of the mine. Lazar's wife comes
to visit him as she lives separately in another town. Their marriage is unsuccessful and not promising. As they are quarrelling permanently
with each other he insists on her leaving, as if he supposes that her presence is because of her interests in trading valuable minerals.
The discovery of the new minerals causes too many negative situations not only to Lazar's colleagues but even to the inspector, who is
Lazar's old friend. Lazar's stay in the town is a rare occasion to see his son. A disaster happens in the mine. The miners are trapped
underground. The disaster is caused by an explosion, which happens because of the thieves of valuable minerals. The buried miners are
trying to find a way out of the mine. The group inside the mine gets divided. In a way it signifies the separation of the interests of the
ordinary miners f side and from the other interests of the manager's miners. It is also an opportunity to clear out some of the previous
accounts and quarrels between him, who is also in the mine and the oldest miner, named Blagoja. During the war they were fighting together
for freedom but later on, at their work they took positions on the opposite sides. Finally the miners succeed in clearing away both the
exit and rescuing their relations and they appear at the surface.
Resume: With "The Lead Brigade" Macedonian film production once again faces the need but also the problem of contemporary
subject matter. The Macedonian filmmakers had already gained experience in this kind of film. It seemed to point to a kind of unpopularity
that contemporary themes enjoyed with the film producers or perhaps this was merely a short-lived impression. The truth, however, is that
there was a continuous deficiency of high quality screenplays on this theme.
It should be noted that "The Lead Brigade" was the first encounter of one of the younger Macedonian directors Kiril Cenevski with
contemporary subject matter. It is interesting that Cenevski also wrote the screenplay of this film just as he did with his previous films
"Black Seed" and "Anguish" which he dedicated mainly to the exploration of our distant and immediate past. In this case, however, it appears
that Cenevski left his text dramaturgicly incomplete. There is far from a small number of unjustified digressions in it, which is a very
sensitive aspect of the cinematic organism. The domineering dramaturgical problem in this kind of film is not so much to present the action
as deconstructed as possible as to present the real relationships between the people who function under these circumstances. After all the
entire action of the film may be a more or less successful construction but the characters must be as true as possible.
The creative methods of Cenevski who is the complete author of this film both as its director and the author of its screenplays reveal the
characteristics of a more modern understanding of the material and also of the elements of cinematic expression. However, in his design of
the story there exist, as we have already mentioned, some discrepancies and misunderstandings which cannot be justified; the classical
esthetic conflict between the imagined material and the means chosen for its cinematic realization i. e. the conflict between contents and
form.
Thus Cenevski's artistic concept in his first contact with contemporary subject matter unfortunately has a number of rather serious
deficiencies. The efforts he makes to elaborate the problems presented by such a subject matter from, as many aspects as possible are indeed
evident. What is also evident is the attempt to present this complex elaboration through an unconventional dramaturgy and through the use of
an increasingly dynamic cinematic language. However, all of these strivings do not seem to offer the anticipated effects and what is more
the final result is faint and expressionless. The author appears to have got lost in the thematic labyrinth that he himself created.
The motif underlying the fable of "The Lead Brigade" is somewhat bizarre but it does not function very successfully as such. In one of the
forsaken shafts of the mine, crystals of a very rare mineral, "Talium", have been uncovered but this is not revealed for mysterious reasons
and after the separation the crystals disappear and end up in unknown places. Everybody puts the secret of the blame for this on one another,
in the course of which some of the older miners steal and trade the crystal.
In view of the rather difficult conditions under which this film was shot, mainly in the realistic interiors of the mine shafts and corridors
the visual effects of the film insisted that the faces of the characters be visible which was achieved to the maximum so that these faces are
the fundamental visual element of the shot. This is partly due to the cameraman, Misho Samoilovski. With this way of shooting the need arises
for continuous shots, which are very delicate, to be rhythmically connected during the montage. Given these difficulties the editor, Spase
Tasevski, managed to complete this task with great efficiency, which can also be said for the successful tonal expression of the sound
engineer Jordan Janevski. The case with the set by Nikola Lazarevski, which manipulated the basically realistic decorative elements, is similar.
The performance of the actors constitutes a special part of "The Lead Brigade" but also a segment in which all of the weaknesses and strengths
of this film can be felt. The final impression, however, is that the entire cast carried this story through with success. Names that should be
mentioned include Miralem Zupchevic, Pavle Vuisic, Ilija Dzuvalekovski, Darko Damevski, Meto Jovanovski, Aco Jovanovski, Dimitar Geshovski,
Dragi Kostovski, Kole Angelovski, Blagoja Spirkovski, Dancho Chevrevski, Majda Tushar, Milja Vujanovic and finally the very successful guest
appearance of Fabijan Shovagovic.
This is all that we can say regarding "The Lead Brigade". The film probably possessed an over-dose of media dramaturgy which, given the results
it brought about did not guarantee a more straightforward experience of the film even though we could not claim with certainty that it distanced
the film from the audience.
Awards:
1980 FYFF, Pula, Golden Arena for best camera / Misho Samoilovski
1980 FYFF, Pula, The Prize "Prvomajska" ("The First of May") for the best film with contemporary theme
1980 A Film Prize from the miners from "Rasha"
Sources: Macedonian Cinema Information Center and Cinemateque of Macedonia.
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