The Pencil (Natalya Nazarova, 2019): Russia

Reviewed by Lily Papke. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020.

The Pencil is a Russian drama, directed by Natalya Nazarova. It is about an artist named Antonina, played by Nadezhda Gorelova, that moves to a new rural town because her husband is in jail. She attempts to make a new life there by renting a damaged apartment and teach art class at a local school. However trouble finds her way when a gang leader’s brother ends up in her class.

This movie uses some different directing techniques to visually tell the story. The town is filled with de-saturated colors to express how depressing it is. They always put Atonina in forest greens and deep reds to signify she is alive with passion while the bully is always in black. Baby blue is another color constantly used throughout the film but it’s more on the buildings than someone wearing it. When she first arrives and rents the apartment it is very dark with blue tones to represent the sadness of it. Whenever there is something slightly formalistic in the film it is put there in for a reason and to tell the audience something. The film is filled with diegetic music but whenever the students start to draw, they include relaxing music and create a montage which shows how inspired they are. A scene that sticks out to me is when Atonina is fighting with the history teacher. They use jump cuts to help represent the harshness of the argument and the words he’s yelling at her.

The title of this film is the biggest symbol of all though. At the start of the film they show a pencil factory making yellow pencils. These pencils symbolize the children in this town and how the adults see them as one in a million, nothing special to protect. The bully easily snaps the pencil in half, and the teachers don’t do anything about it. At the end of the film they show this factory again except now the pencils are green. To me this shows that Atonina did inspire and change the students with new ideas. However, the adults in the town haven’t adapted themselves and still see the children as replaceable.

I recommend this movie if you like realistic films. Although beware because this movie is sort of filled with sorrow.