Augstaka Tiesa
USSR,
1987, 69 min
Shown in 1988
CREDITS
- dir
-
Herz Frank
- cam
-
Andris Seleckis
- source
-
Goskino
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Shown with Sunday Pranks.
OTHER
Convicted of a double murder during an impulsive robbery, Dolgov sits on death row awaiting the result of appeals. His execution is simply a matter of form—death by firing squad. Herz Frank's documentary probes the heart of the seemingly indifferent and hardened killer. Dolgov confesses everything, an open and shut case. The film asks: Why do our young men kill? Must we in turn kill them? Frank humanizes these young criminals. Shorn of all hair and all disguises, Dolgov talks grudgingly to the camera, painfully. Over the months, as the camera grinds on without pity, Dolgov and his defenses break down. Dolgov clenches his fists, bows his shaved head, his jaw working, his body trembling. His final words—"I love you all. Love, that's all that matters."
—Gordon Hitchens, Variety
Itself a condemnation of the death penalty, The Highest Court [aka The Last Judgment] provides a social context within which Dolgov's meaningless violence exists as a predictable act: a broken family, early parental abandonment, violent behavior, involvement in black-marketeering.... Both a lawyer and a journalist, Herz Frank has produced a film sharply critical of a society that condemns a young person to death without examining the origin of this actions.
— Nancy Condee and Vladimir Padunov
FACTOID #109
Though the film had won two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival, John Cassavetes’ Love Streams was pulled from the SFIFF program at the last minute by the distributor. According to Cassavetes, MGM/UA was concerned that showing Streams, which the director himself proclaimed ’a crazy film,’ at the SFIFF might hurt the film’s box office upon wider release
