Beyond the Steppes (2010)

Directed by: Vanja d’Alcantara | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Agnieszka Grochowska, Aleksandra Justa, Tatiana Tarskaya, Borys Szyc, Ahan Zolanbiek

‘Beyond the Steppes’ is the feature film debut of director Vanja d’Alcantara (Belgium), who also wrote the screenplay. She was inspired by events in her grandmother’s life.

The story begins idyllically in 1939. The young Polish army officer Roman (Borys Szyc) and his wife Nina (Agnieszka Grochowska) are in bed with their baby. They frolic a little, but their game is interrupted by their crying baby. The mood changes quickly. Without much dialogue involved, it becomes clear that Roman is forced to leave her. The Russians have invaded the east and the Nazis are attacking the west. Nina asks if she will ever see him again, but fears the worst. A later arrest of Nina by the Russians follows. She is transported with her baby and many others to a desolate and remote collective state farm, far away in Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union. They are not allowed to leave their designated area there.

There they have to perform forced labor under harsh conditions and crammed together in shabby shacks. The treatment is bad, food scarce, guards are brutal. Medicines are almost completely absent. There is no point in fleeing, the state farm is so remote that a flight (where to, by the way?) is more or less equivalent to suicide. Survival is the only option and the women in the camp draw a lot of strength, courage and perseverance from their mutual support and camaraderie

Nina’s baby gets sick; drugs are the only salvation. Permission to go to a hospital with him is resolutely refused, but she still gets a chance. However, the condition is that her child must remain behind. She decides to make the journey to save her baby’s life. She is allowed to go on a horse and carriage with some nomadic Kazakhs and after two days she ends up in an extremely poor rural clinic where she has to struggle for simple medicines. The journey back to an uncertain situation begins, dramatic events follow…..

Although almost entirely set in wartime, it is not a war film with large dramatic scenes. ‘Beyond the Steppes’ is a small, almost intimately filmed story about a personal event. Many scenes were filmed close-up. Major hectic events are almost absent, the drama rather follows from the combination of the desolate landscapes and nature.

In the context of historical drama, the screenplay is too lean and simplistic. The storyline develops at a very calm pace so that it ripples along and the fact doesn’t grab you by the throat. Thanks to the beautiful camera work of the impressive landscape images, the somewhat minimalistic film eventually acquires an acceptable content.

Agnieszka Grochowska plays Nina convincingly. She symbolizes the fight and the urge of every mother to survive with the aim of giving her child a chance.

Director Vanja d’Alcantara opted for a more or less unexpected and open ending, leaving the viewer the choice as to how people can continue their lives after they have had to endure so much?