Alexander Zeldovich made a film about his mother Alla Gerber

Many of us are very familiar with Alla Efremovna and, despite the age difference, they simply call her Alla. No middle name. Not everyone can be approached this way. “I am Alla Gerber,” she said at the premiere of her son’s film at the Berlin Film Festival. That’s all. No regalia. The guards immediately parted at the entrance. And it’s not like the security guards knew anything about her. She just walked with her head held high, and it was an unforgettable episode.

A few years ago, the multi-part film “Interlinear” by Oleg Dorman was released about the philologist and outstanding translator of books by Astrid Lindgren and Heinrich Böll Liliana Lungina, the mother of directors and screenwriters Pavel and Evgeniy Lungin. It was a cinematic monologue about life and about oneself, about the country and generation. For several episodes there was only one woman in front of the camera, from whom it was impossible to take your eyes off. Interest in the film exceeded all expectations.

Liliana Lungina is older than Alla Gerber. She passed away in 1998 at the age of 77, without seeing the changes that occupy the minds of modern viewers. Alexander Zeldovich filled this gap by filming his phenomenal mother. His picture consists of six chapters. As he himself says: “This is my mother’s story about herself and life. It was filmed exactly two years ago. It turned out to be a personal and at the same time epic story about myself and about the century. Six episodes of forty minutes each.”

On the screen there is only Alla Gerber, sitting in a chair and remembering her life, starting from her childhood. This is both a confession and a story about an entire generation whose growing up took place during Stalin’s time, and a conversation about the country as a whole. Alla Gerber has a beautiful face, she is a beauty, and age has added to her splendor. She has an amazing memory, containing events that last almost a century.

The film was shot by cameraman Alexander Ilkhovsky, with whom Zeldovich worked on his recent “Medea” (its premiere took place at the Locarno festival), “Target”, “Moscow”, “Warrior”. Before this, Ilkhovsky worked with Gleb Panfilov on the film “Mother”. At the beginning of 2022, Russian film critics awarded him the White Elephant Award for Medea, noting the best cinematography. Alexander Ilkhovsky that evening accompanied Alla Gerber, who was then awarded an honorary prize. Mirona Chernenko. She is not only a film critic, but also the editor of the famous film “Officers”. Accepting the award, Alla Gerber said that the best period of her life, which lasted 25 years, was associated with her work in cinema. She once thought about “staying too long in the cinema” and then doing something else, but film director Yakov Segel told her: “People don’t leave cinema. They take it out of the cinema.” Now Alla herself has become the heroine of her son’s film. On January 3 she turned 92 years old.

The film is divided not into series, but into chapters. There are six of them. “I was a big dreamer… I wanted to be an actress” – the picture begins with these words. Alla did not become an actress – she lisped a little, she entered the Faculty of Law, although she dreamed of Moscow State University. This is where the “fifth point” got in the way. “Jewish,” Alla will say about herself. “The fifth point stayed with me for a long time, before perestroika.” As a result, she became interested in journalism.

Gerber is a witness of the century, its ups and downs, political changes, social and cultural events. The first performance she saw was “The Blue Bird” at the Moscow Art Theater, her lifelong favorite, to which her dad got her hooked. Alla recalls the search in their apartment. She was in tenth grade then. Some people came, and the hospitable grandmother brought out three cups of steaming coffee on a tray and offered it to the uninvited guests. But the cups remained on the table. “We’re not supposed to,” the strangers answered. They took my father away that day. Before leaving, he knelt in front of his wife and said: “I’m sorry. I am not guilty of anything.” And he left for seven years. Alla explains that he sat as a Zionist, which he was not. Gerber wrote a book about her parents, “Mom and Dad.”

My father was rehabilitated in 1956, and he returned only in 1985. Alla Gerber says that she has an American biography. There were no connections or acquaintances, I walked along the corridors looking for work. She began writing her first notes in Moskovsky Komsomolets. She was 20 years old then. I had no experience, but they didn’t turn me away; they gave me the task of going to the dormitory of the confectionery factory and talking to the girls about how they live and work. She went and met, but not her, but they began to ask her about how to save the family, what to do if her husband cheats. What could the young correspondent say in response? She still didn’t really know anything, although in the film she recalls her novels, including timid youthful kisses at the entrance to them. I had to imagine. As a result, Alla brought an article to MK entitled “About Love,” and this was her first serious publication. After that, she began to actively write, including feuilletons.

She took her first interview with Korney Chukovsky, and it was published in the magazine “Culture and Life”, where she was hired. Then “Youth” came a couple of months before Valentin Kataev left the magazine. By that time, Alla was a nursing mother, which did not prevent her from going on a business trip to the Donbass, where she had the opportunity to go down into a mine and visit miners’ families. “It was scary. I’m still a girl from Chistye Prudy,” recalls Gerber. This was her first business trip; before that she wrote only about Moscow. Kataev appreciated the report, but said that it was only suitable for the New York Times, adding: “But you will write.” And she traveled throughout the Soviet Union, reporting on the life of the country.

“My homeland is the Russian language” – Alla Gerber always repeats these words. And he will say more than once in the film: “I had many golden days, not only tragic ones.” Alla inherited the festive spirit from her dad. He himself lived with this feeling and told his daughter that you should be happy every day that you are alive. Alla’s mother was a beauty, and the famous pianist Horowitz was ready to marry her and wrote letters to her from America. She determined a lot in the life of her daughter, who in turn became a real Jewish mother, which she loves to joke about.

The six-part monologue contains many details of a time that many of us have not seen since the Stalinist years. Alla recalls how “the girls turned the dynamo” and kept their virginity, how they were looked after. No one gave flowers; they were not on sale. She was at Mikhoels’ funeral, where her father took her. She was brought up, among other things, on “pillow reading” of prohibited literature. And she met her future husband Fima out of love for the poet Boris Slutsky. Alla had his first book – a great rarity then, and a friend brought his friend to her so that he could read it. Then the future spouses went to the Cheburechka, the last showing of Ryazanov’s “Carnival Night,” and nine months later, in 1958, their son Alexander was born. In 1964, his beloved Fima passed away. He died of lymphatic disease.

Alla talks a lot about her social activities, meetings and work with Boris Yeltsin, parliamentary activities, the fight against manifestations of nationalism, about how Zhirinovsky shouted after her: “Get her to prison! In Lefortovo.” She had to restrain herself and not rush into the embrasure, realizing that she still had a small son in her arms, for whose life she was responsible. She is a small woman with an unbending will, living her life honestly and courageously, regardless of what happens around her. And this requires strength.

“I’m not strong at all,” Alla admits. – I tend to run away from my dramas and troubles. I ran well and walked quickly.” It’s not for nothing that Mikhail Kozakov said about her: “The best legs in Moscow.” Everyone can interpret it in their own way. Alla often had dreams in which she ran across a field in a white dress. Now they are gone. Gone. Gloomy dreams took their place. But she herself is an uplifting person who can inspire hope. “I love freedom, stupidity and rock and roll,” says Alla Gerber, meaning by stupidity bold and reckless actions that only lively and passionate people are capable of.

At the end of the film, Alla Gerber talks about why she is the way she is: “Why didn’t I become an old woman? Anger draws other faces. Faces age when a person is irritated or dissatisfied with something. It’s not me who looks good, it’s my character.”