The White Crow (2019)

Rudolph Nureyev was brought up in the grim Soviet town of Ufa. A chance outing to the opera at age 6 showed him an escape route – the stage. The title White Crow alludes to a Russian saying meaning ‘outsider’. Nureyev grows up to be a prideful, independent-minded young man, dedicated to becoming a great ballet dancer, and not inclined to be obedient – a dangerous practice in the Soviet Union.

He becomes a very successful dancer and is taken on tour to Western Europe at the start of the 1960s. The troupe are warned to ‘stick to socialists’ and not to mingle with Westerners but Rudolph is determined to enjoy his time in Paris by visiting galleries and making friends. His KGB handlers watch and get anxious.

When the troupe’s stay in France is over and they are about to travel to London, Nureyev is told by Soviet agents he is needed back in Russia. They give several conflicting reasons as to why, and Nureyev smells a rat. He fears he will be imprisoned or worse, and it will be the end of his dancing career. He must make a judgment as to whether he is better off as a man and an artist outside the Soviet Union.

The film jumps between three periods of Nureyev’s life. His childhood in Ufa is shot in near black and white and is depicted as always winter. Ralph Fiennes (also the director) plays his tutor in Leningrad. And finally there is the fateful trip to Paris. The screenwriter David Hare, at the Glasgow Film Festival Scottish premiere of the film, said that he had originally wanted to focus the film on the Paris part of the story but was told by Ralph Fiennes, a great lover of Russia, that the story was to be set in both countries and the narrative flow between three periods of Nureyev’s life. The appeal of this non-linear approach, said Hare, was that it mirrors the way people experience things. That’s very well but I think that while the Russian scenes add good contrast they were a bit dramatically empty.

Nureyev is played well by first-time actor and experienced dancer Oleg Ivenko, who spent nine months preparing for the role, learning authentic dance routines and to speak English. The final result is a classy visual film but, despite a deft script and the subject matter, it lacks tension.