I vsyo-taki ya veryu… (…And Still I Believe). 1974. USSR. Directed by Mikhail Romm, Marlen Khutsiev, Elem Klimov. Screenplay by Solomon Zanin, Aleksandr Novogrudsky, Romm. In Russian; English subtitles. 120 min.
Born in 1901, Mikhail Romm took part in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II. His landmark films Nine Days of One Year (1961) and Ordinary Fascism (1965) embodied the intellectual discourse and discontent of the 1960s, influencing an entire generation of Thaw filmmakers, including Andrei Tarkovsky, G. N. Chukhrai, Marlen Khutsiev, and Elem Klimov. Following Romm’s untimely death during the making of …And Still I Believe, his former students Khutsiev and Klimov completed this remarkable film montage, a personal journey across 20th-century history and the clash of civilizations told, in part, through Romm’s own diary entries and gripping historical footage.