I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Tambov rebellion of 1920-1921, one of largest peasant rebellions against the Soviet Bolshevik regime. But very few people know about it, because official Soviet historians tried hard to distort and downplay the events. I think "Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman" (Жила-была одна баба) movie is the only attempt to tell the true story to a wide audience.On the other hand, while Tambov rebellion is the reason for this movie to exist, we barely see the rebellion itself. Instead the movie tells the story of Russian peasant woman (baba) between 1909 and 1921, who happened to be living through it. And this life story is meticulously made. You could see the crew spent a lot of time making sure costumes, language, manners are as close to the period as possible. It's a unique ethnographic work. You could feel you are there.(I hugely disagree with the other commentator who didn't like "dirt", "lust" and "sluts". Regarding "dirt", I think the commentator has never been even to modern peasant village in Russia, especially one without asphalt roads. I also disagree that the language peasants speak is an "awful pseudo-accent". I guess the commentator simply hasn't read classic Russian writers Ivan Bunin or Nikolai Leskov. In their works the so called "pseudo-accent" is the language peasants actually use. By the way, Leskov's novel "The Life of a Peasant Woman" (Житие одной бабы), which obviously influenced the movie name and idea, confirms not only the language, but also harsh brutality, that could be surprising for a modern eye. Finally, I haven't seen "sluts" in the movie. The heroine didn't even have sex before her marriage.)For me the ethnographic part of the movie is enough to enjoy it, even if the story was crap. But it's not. It's a heart breaking love-during-turbulent-times story. Finally, it's very close to historic reality. E.g. depicted barbaric violence Bolshevik used against civilians, is well documented in numerous historic archive documents and memoirs.The movie made a long lasting impression on me. It's a masterpiece.Full disclosure: I'm Russian and my great-grandparents were violently deported during dekulakization (раскулачивание), about 10 years after the events of the movie. This could obviously influence my opinion. But I still believe anyone even mildly interested in Russian history would be impressed by the movie.

Welcome to the grand freak show of cosmic stupidity.Every average movie goer knows that there are such thing as exploitation films. As you might remember, it's when film director intentionally uses one of the delicate themes for his films. Violence, war, gore, horror, sex, Blacks - everything seemed to be written and taped already. And some directors, as Andrei Smirnov and the majority of his contemporaries in Russia, loves to make films where they show Russia as a dirty archaic country and Russian people - as ugly mindless barbarians, always drunk and lustful. This is what I have to call rusxploitation.Really, it's a film of fantastic absurd level, crazy to nonsense. There are no characters here to whom a viewer can feel somewhat of empathy. Just a bunch of stupid people run around in circles, shouting, shooting, fighting and raping each other. It's a well premise for trash comedy, but this film isn't positioned as such, though altogether with "Burnt by the Sun 2" and "My Joy" it should.Goddamnit, I don't know how naive man should be to consider this garbage somewhat "historical" and "it's-all-true!" sort of film. The thing is, with some respect to the details in the surroundings and elements of everyday life, there are no middle tones here, just black and white, especially the first one. I'm glad I can't dive into sick imagination of the director, because this abyss is something really dangerous.This is one shameful movie playing on the utter concentration of negative moments in the life of pre-soviet and soviet peasants. The main hook that this movie has is that it's filmed really good. Cinematography is colorful with decent attention to the details and the actors doing their job just fine. But the scenario is disgusting and untruthful to the maximum. The subject matter, film's concept, scenario and direction are beyond any critique. Dirty lampoon farce on Russia with stereotypical characters and all-around drinking and rolling in the hay (both literally and not). I guess it will be great if in the end some polar bears appeared and ate all these disgusting characters and film crew as well.Man, I'm one of the most peaceful guys you could ever possibly met, but watching this made me wanna throw nuclear bomb on this crapworld of the movie. If author wanted to create a world to hate, he prevailed, for sure. For any other reason imaginable - this is one big fail. Step over this useless phobic flick and move on. Oh yeah, and screw this awful pseudo-accent (even the descendants of the people that lived there say that their ancestors didn't talk like this).Ignore this awful farce, it's worthless, although spectacular. But if you are into stereotypes about Russia as a country of drunks, thieves and sluts, go ahead, it won't disappoint you. But not for the thinking people anyhow.

This is a beautiful, honest, tough, harrowing, and very necessary depiction of the life of women in Russia in the 1910s/20s, and the unromantic nature of the revolution and subsequent civil war. The film follows Varvara, a peasant woman, who's married off to a drunk. He treats her badly, beating and abusing her, and things just get worse from then on for her. But although the film doesn't shy away from showing the awful things she undergoes, it rarely feels as if it's too much: the action is intelligently portrayed, all the acting is top- notch, and the images are so beautiful that the squalor of Varvara's life is always watchable. Less poetry in the visuals and folk context (the peasants' singing, clothing, housing...) - say if it were set on a modern-day housing estate - and it would have been a different matter, just another depressing kitchen-sink drama. But the setting is fascinating, and it's portrayal artistically justified. The film is truly remarkable and worth seeing. It's a tad long and very intense, but repays the effort.