Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (2025)

Set in the Russian Civil War. A lieutenant ponders the death of the Russia he knew while haunted by lost love.

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The Pub

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6 min read

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Jul 6, 2024

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Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (3)

Sunstroke the 2014 Russian Film is based on two of Ivan Benin’s works. It is a tale of sun and shadow. The sunny part comes from his collection of short stories — Collected Stories — published in 2002. The shadow comes from Cursed Days — his work on the horrors of the Russian Civil War.

The short story Sunstroke tells the tale of a man changed forever by a rapturous infatuation with a married woman he meets on a Volga river steamer. After much distant longing, they finally connect. They go ashore to consummate the affair. Upon his return alone to the steamer, the officer knows he will never be the same. It is a familiar story but Benin writes it with a finely crafted sense of time and place. The details of the story are rich and moving. You can feel the fading heat of late summer and the rising heat of love. Smell the clean scent of river air and the musk of desire.

The book Cursed Days started as his diary during the revolution. It is filled with monstrous, unspeakable inhumanity. It details the days following the war between the Red and White armies from 1918 to 1920. It was first published in excerpts leaked past the censors. Eventually, the full book had an English printing in America after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cursed Days is a painful condemnation of war. It is human horror on paper — as stark as anything Goya did in oil.

The Russian Civil WarWhen America intervened in Russian politics — with troops — on their soil.medium.com
Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (4)

The movie produced by Nikita Mikhalkov in 2014 is a combination of both of these works. Such opposite concepts as love and war invite criticism. Yes, it can feel a little jarring. But that is no accident. By nakedly placing lost love with lost identity the movie improves both. The particular and personal becomes a metaphor for the general loss of both.

The film alternates between two times, two locations, and two atmospheres. The story’s present is a 1920 prison camp in Crimea. The past comes in flashbacks to a Volga River steamer years earlier. The camp is a malevolent grey landscape of broken order. The riverboat is a blinding white mirage of Russia’s golden age.

The film opens in a city after the final collapse of the White Army in Crimea. It is in shambles, wreckage, pamphlets, and dead bodies lying unattended. A Peacock from a shattered zoo wanders the street. Cars full of victorious soldiers are swerving through the town.

As they drive out of sight a shot rings out. The soldiers rattle out of sight - another shot, a flurry of wings. Then the scene cuts to the dead peacock. This metaphor for the gratuitous losses of the Civil War may be heavy-handed. But this is not a tale of moderation. It is not a history lesson.

The next scene opens in the prison camp. It is a blasted place of dreadful utility. Everything is futile, brutally grey, and broken. But the men have been promised pardons and the mood is nervous hope. You can sense relief that the war is over, whatever its outcome. The men are reconciled to their fate as only broken men can be.

Much of the movie is a series of flashbacks to a Volga river cruiser from years before the revolution. This part of the movie is exquisite. An incandescent tribute to past glories. It is as bright and perfect as the monotone camp is broken.

Onboard, the officer meets an irresistible — and married, woman. He is blinded by desire. Both are driven mad by need. Finally, they succumb to the attraction. They go ashore and have one night of passion. In the morning - she — and the steamer, have gone. He spends the day with a village boy who helps him scheme to reconnect with her. They spend the day in gentle idyl. But later the officer falls asleep and misses the return boat. He never sees the woman again. She lives only in memory.

Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (5)

The purpose of the camp is to hold White Army prisoners until the Soviets decide what to do. The collapse of the White Army placed thousands of prisoners into the Bolshevik hands. It was a vast logistics problem that needed a solution. Their answer is a descent into brutality that led directly to the Siberian Gulags.

There are others, a rebel commander, kind and noble to the last. A beguiling young soldier obsessed with his new camera. He longs to take a group photo binding conquerors and conquered in reconciliation. A hideous caricature of a Soviet official. Full of the ruthless clarity of someone given power for the first time.

Last, there is an enigmatic minor official simply “doing his job” He is processing the vast record of prisoners. He appears to recognize the Lieutenant. He seems to wait for a greeting. It does not happen. Bonds could not hold in those dark days. He completes the ceremony of surrender. Stripped of rank and identity, the Lieutenant returns to the camp. The mechanics of dehumanization are complete.

Eventually, the Bolsheviks conceived an efficient solution to their prisoner problem. With terrifying attention to detail, it plays out in mute perfection. The commander ponders “What a country we have destroyed. With our own hands. We destroyed such a country with our own hands.”

In a bestial climax — all the elements converge. The boy from the village, the lost identity, and the solution to the problem of prisoners. In the madness of that civil war, “all was permissible”.

I said that Sunstroke is not a history lesson. It is not -It is a fairytale. A dream of lost days of grace. But also a nightmare of the needless brutality of the Civil War. It was tragic, but so are all wars. The Russian Civil War was a singular profanity. Its unspeakable sins didn’t follow from victory but relentless vengeance. Sunstroke is a fairytale. But it is written on gossamer trailing into blood.

Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (6)

I left much out to prevent spoilers. It is Russian — Russian in the classical sense so the ending should not surprise. But the film is beautiful, stunningly beautiful. Even in the grey hell of the camp, there is kindness. Deep real kindness. The imagery of the river journey is as sunlit as the camp is sunless. Everything in the movie is detailed and enticing. It has that fairytale quality of a memory that never quite was.

Sunstroke is one of the most beautifully filmed movies I have seen. I encourage everyone to watch the movie. Consider reading the books that inspired it. Ivan Bunin has reclaimed the grandeur of Russian literature.

Sunstroke can be found on Amazon Prime and also on YouTube. I encourage you to watch it and hope you enjoy.

Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin (2025)
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