Marat Grinberg is associate professor of Russian and humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

• Note on transliterationAcknowledgementsKinoSputniks general editors’ prefaceList of illustrationsProduction creditsPlot summaryChapter 1: Introduction: Production historyChapter 2: Literary sourcesChapter 3: Film analysisChapter 4: 1987 and after: Critical reception and debates

'Marat Grinberg’s film companion to The Commissar... aims to demonstrate that Aleksandr Askoldov’s only film is not only an indispensable historical artifact for understanding late Soviet cinematic politics, but also one of the greatest films of European post-war cinema, placing Askoldov in the company of acknowledged masters such as Francois Truffaut, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Luc Godard... Grinberg... excels in ferreting out literary antecedents to the film [and] is most effective in explaining the myriad ways in which Askoldov embeds Jewish motifs, images, language and folk culture into the film... It is hard to imagine a more complete analysis of this aspect of The Commissar.'

Marat Grinberg is associate professor of Russian and humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

• Note on transliterationAcknowledgementsKinoSputniks general editors’ prefaceList of illustrationsProduction creditsPlot summaryChapter 1: Introduction: Production historyChapter 2: Literary sourcesChapter 3: Film analysisChapter 4: 1987 and after: Critical reception and debates

'Marat Grinberg’s film companion to The Commissar... aims to demonstrate that Aleksandr Askoldov’s only film is not only an indispensable historical artifact for understanding late Soviet cinematic politics, but also one of the greatest films of European post-war cinema, placing Askoldov in the company of acknowledged masters such as Francois Truffaut, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Luc Godard... Grinberg... excels in ferreting out literary antecedents to the film [and] is most effective in explaining the myriad ways in which Askoldov embeds Jewish motifs, images, language and folk culture into the film... It is hard to imagine a more complete analysis of this aspect of The Commissar.'

Marat Grinberg is associate professor of Russian and humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

• Note on transliterationAcknowledgementsKinoSputniks general editors’ prefaceList of illustrationsProduction creditsPlot summaryChapter 1: Introduction: Production historyChapter 2: Literary sourcesChapter 3: Film analysisChapter 4: 1987 and after: Critical reception and debates

'Marat Grinberg’s film companion to The Commissar... aims to demonstrate that Aleksandr Askoldov’s only film is not only an indispensable historical artifact for understanding late Soviet cinematic politics, but also one of the greatest films of European post-war cinema, placing Askoldov in the company of acknowledged masters such as Francois Truffaut, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Luc Godard... Grinberg... excels in ferreting out literary antecedents to the film [and] is most effective in explaining the myriad ways in which Askoldov embeds Jewish motifs, images, language and folk culture into the film... It is hard to imagine a more complete analysis of this aspect of The Commissar.'