The Russians are still obsessed with Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina".

On the surface at least, Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" would seem to be a simple rip-off of Gustave Flaubert's brilliant and incredibly popular portrait of an adulterous married woman, and, her inevitable downfall in still extremely patriarchal nineteenth century Europe, written over twenty years earlier. However, there's actually more to it than that. This is a very Russian novel, about Russian society, morals, culture and social changes in the 1870's. And, this period was critical, as all Russians now know, to subsequent developments in Russian history -- the assassination of Alexander II, the accession of Alexander III and Nicholas II, and their movements to greater authoritarianism in Russia, the Russo-Japanese War, the Revolution of 1905, WWI, the Revolution of 1917, and three quarters of a century of communism. In this recent adaptation of Anna Karenina, there is a very unusual twist to the perspective on the novel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuaxy4YQzAA We see, in this particular version, the events of the novel, interspersed with observations of a period thirty years in the future, in Manchuria China, during the Russo-Japanese War, in 1904. And, the general in charge of the station of Russians fighting the Japanese in China, is none other than Prince Vronsky, the anti-hero and lover of Anna Karenina! And, the plot thickens. The actor playing Count Vronsky is an older man, not the actor playing Count Vronsky in the action occurring in the novel, in this particular production. Instead -- believe it or not! -- the actor playing Count Vronsky in the action from Anna Karenina here, is now playing the station doctor, who is mostly performing amputations, in the action ocurring in 1904! So, what exactly is going on here, do you think? I think, Anna Karenina is being used as a symbol for Russia as a whole here, something that Leo Tolstoy himself may have had in mind. And, I think Vronsky is being used as a symbol for the forces attacking and destroying Russia from within. But, the producers of this particular production are extending the analogy thirty years into the future, to increase its power. And, thirty years into the future, Vronsky has become Russia/Anna Karenina, and the station doctor has become Vronsky, the destroyer of Anna/Russia. An interesting sub-plot here is the rather charming and intimate relationship that develops in 1904 between the older Count/General Vronsky and an adolescent Chinese girl who seeks shelter from the war in the Russian station. This is very typical of all Chinese and Russian historical films these days -- Russians and Chinese are presented as being natural allies and lovers, throughout all of history.