To show a totalitarian country in pure propaganda mode is instructive and impactful.

The guiding intelligence and pervading mournfulness is all Pasha’s as he watches the light in his students' eyes slowly dim to darkness.

[A] touching, intimate chronicle.

The film [Talankin] constructed with David Borenstein in Denmark and the Czech Republic now lives on as a procedural about the steps it takes to militarize a populace: start with the kids, hammer the message home, and punish anyone who steps out of line.