by the landowner. This treasure-filled box now uncovered unleashes a tragic chain of events: wrath of young landowner, his denunciation of his servant’s son Andrii, the lynching of Andrii, and finally, Antin’s revenge.
Filming sequences were meticulously designed, if stripped of context. Ignorant of any back-story, we’re required to trust what is put before us. Eighty-four years have passed and we are still trusting what is in front of us in this film. Our own perceptions and take on the film, especially when compared with those of the Soviet critics, have been radically altered. The filmmakers held that a positive portrayal of the Bolshevik forces was their primary objective, the Whites serving as the blood-thirsty foil. Antin is intended as a sympathetic figure; a man trapped who must find a way out.
An unjaundiced take on those events would argue that for the ordinary person living an ordinary life at that time, the revolution was a calamity. Only the most irresistible force can dislodge a man from the inertia of his everyday existence. For the film’s protagonist, this force was the death of his son. It is evident that the Civil War, with its rapid shifts in direction, often stripping families of children drawn to the Red side, brought about this level of change; but along with it, also the apolitical outlook of those who lost their sons and daughters in the conflict. This situation is emblematic of the times (and the films), as we are reminded in the character “Vasyl” in Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Earth.
Revolutionary apologists actively undermine a fundamental morality; in Two Days, the character Antin, in a moral act, rescues the landowner’s son. And how is this treated in the film? By showing that it is Antin’s own morality that opens the way to his suffering. The landowner’s son is a class enemy, not fit to be saved.
The film continues to provoke interest, eliciting heightened emotion whenever it is shown: tension arises from the archetypal treatment of a son in peril and a treasure at risk. Concealed loot and a man in hiding. Landed nobles unable to secure their wealth, but a servant, Antin, fully capable of protecting the heir during the search of his room conducted by his own son, the traitor.
One may reasonably assert that during the first decade of Soviet authority, a person of intelligent appearance could often be identified as “the enemy.” In the film: White officers, seated around the supper table. The next day fortunes have changed and
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