The White Crow
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Stars: Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann
Duration: 127 mins
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd
On March 17, 1938, a child is born aboard the Trans-Siberian express, near Lake Baikal in Russia. He grows up in Ufa, capital of the Soviet Republic of Bashkir. When still a young boy he is taken to the ballet – and falls in love with what he sees.
At that moment, still a scrappy little kid, he decides he wants to be a dancer. In 1955 he is admitted to the Vaganova Academy, and his star begins to rise inexorably.
After graduating, he joins the prestigious Kirov Ballet company in Leningrad, the most important dance company in the USSR. In 1961, on the Kirov Ballet tour to Paris, the dancer’s success is immediate… yet he is not only searching for career accolades. He wants freedom – and chooses to defect just as he is about to be sent back to the USSR.
This man is, of course, Rudolf Nureyev. A ‘white crow’, which in idiomatic Russian means a person who is an ‘other’ – different, remarkable, an outsider.
That he certainly was, going on to become one of the most extraordinary artists of the 21st century, and indeed of the history of ballet.
The White Crow tells the tale of his decision to escape the clutches of the rigid and oppressive Soviet Union to the liberty of the West, while he was on his first international tour. This is the third movie directed by Ralph Fiennes, and he has crafted an elegant and ultimately exciting eulogy to Nureyev. It is a movie that is structured around three important time periods in the dancer’s life – his unusual birth circumstances and poverty-ridden childhood; his time at the ballet academy; and his time in France, which opened up his eyes to the wonders of what the art and culture world has to offer, and how they are the key to the freedom he so craves.
Fiennes, proving again to be as gifted behind the camera as he is in front of it, chooses to illustrate the flowing time periods with different palettes – a sombre monochrome for Nureyev’s colourless childhood, bright saturated colours underscoring the liberating 60s, and a slightly less vibrant look for the dancer’s ballet school days. After all, his is a charismatic enough presence to light up the screen.
The screenplay by the acclaimed writer of stage and screen David Hare paints Nureyev as a man of extraordinary and indubitable talent. He is exceptionally confident of his abilities, going so far as to demand a change in ballet tutor mere weeks after joining the Vaganova, eventually ending up with the man who would guide him to greatness, Alexander Pushkin (played with quiet gravitas by Fiennes himself) who also ended up being somewhat of a father figure (a favour Nureyev repays by sleeping with Pushkin’s wife).
Furthermore, there are no softening of the edges. Nureyev’s unadulterated self-confidence also made him a rather arrogant man. And that, mixed with the enormous chip he carried on his shoulder about his modest beginnings, made him rather obnoxious to be around, as witnessed by Clara Saint (a rather subdued Adèle Exarchopoulos), a woman he befriends in Paris and who becomes a key player in his defection.
The defection is played out with nail-biting tension in the film’s final moments in a battle of wits between Nureyev, his KGB minders and the French police.
And yet, for all its focus on Nureyev’s passion for his art and ultimate yearning for freedom, we only get fleeting glimpses of the turmoil rumbling within. There is something stirring about his love for trains, for example, and we only get a passing nod to his homosexuality. Yet, these only left me wanting to learn more about what was going on behind that implacable façade.
Granted, Fiennes expertly illustrates the man’s passion for his art and his unbending ambition, yet a deeper emotional insight may have created a fuller portrait.
Stepping into the worn but hardworking shoes of ballet’s great is Oleg Ivenko, a ballet dancer himself with the Tatar State Opera and Ballet in Kazan, in his first film role.
It is an impressive debut for the dancer. He naturally excels in the dance sequences (wish there were more of those too!) but he also captures Nureyev’s charisma, confidence and arrogance in equal measure, convincingly portraying this man who in his own words would rather die than live by the rules.
Lupita Nyong’o in US.Also showing
US (Classification 15) – Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.