Some of you already know that I am writing a book loosely inspired by the 1970 Sophia Loren WWII movie Sunflower, now I will provide some details on the story and the point of it. Sunflower is a tale of an Italian soldier who is rescued from certain death by a Russian village girl, falls in love with her, and stays in the Soviet Union after the war.
Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of Sunflower to me is that it is popular in Russia – all of my friends here over 40 have watched or at least heard of the movie – and Russia appears to be the only country it had any lasting popularity in. Russians apparently like Sunflower because it shows foreigners wandering around the Soviet Union.
The problem with Sunflower is that it’s just not very good, so I aimed to fix those problems in my own story, and a book might actually be a better medium for such a project.
Watching Sunflower inspired me to write my own story. A German officer in 1944 is caught in a blizzard and left for dead. The protagonist wakes up, and finds he has been rescued by a Belarussian peasant girl. As fanatical young patriot, he dislikes this captivity, but there’s no realistic way for him to escape a house in the middle of the forest and safely reach friendly lines. Instead, he is forced to talk to his new friend, who challenges all of his beliefs from birth. This is in part a story about a man who is redeemed from extremist ideology, and also a description of Russian and Soviet people from a western perspective that, hopefully, appeals to western audiences. I intend it as an unusual and ambitious story that is enjoyable to read even for a person completely unfamiliar with history or war. And yes, this is slightly autobiographical, in the sense that I sometimes use the fictional character as a mouthpiece for my own observations.
The second and equally human aspect of the book is the disillusionment of a person who has been raised with extremist ideology from birth. What does it take to deprogram a young man who knows nothing else? This young man, my protagonist, I called Herbert, a smart-sounding name that is also a little silly and disarming. It’s important for readers to not hate him.
His rescuer is Lyudmilla, a girl who lives alone in the forest, as her mother died and her brother is fighting in the war. Lyudmilla is very emotional and wants her life to be like a fairy tale, which sometimes causes her to do stupid things, like drag an enemy soldier to her house. But Lyudmilla believes in human goodness, so doesn’t give up even in the face of hardship and danger.
As I wrote, I eventually thought of a title. Мириться – Miritsya – to make peace.
Ian Kummer
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It seems to be an interesting story. I bet when I read it I’ll get insight into your deprogramming.
Merry Christmas to you, Maria, your dog and the cat. 😉
thanks)
Keep going, I’m watching you)