Child 44

The(ir) Blurb...

Based on the first of a trilogy by Tom Rob Smith and set in the Stalin era of the Soviet Union. The plot is about an idealistic pro-Stalin security officer who decides to investigate a series of child murders in a country where supposedly this sort of crime doesn't exist. The state would not hear of the existence of a child murderer let alone a serial killer. He gets demoted and exiled but decides, with just the help of his wife, to continue pursuing the case.

This film, about the secret hunt for a sadistic serial killer in the 1950s Stalin-controlled USSR, includes a brief subplot about the treatment of gay men at that time. Train station employee Alexander stumbles upon the body of the most recent victim while meeting in the woods with his lover. The police threaten Alexander with jail time and social ruin unless he gives them a list naming “men in this town who have had sex with other men. Men who have had sex with younger men, with boys.” Shortly after providing the list (leading to a montage of arrests), Alexander dies by suicide. The police’s wrongful conflation of gay men and pedophilia was indicative of the time of Stalin’s regime, during which gay men were considered mentally ill and therefore people of interest to be questioned in the case. Overall, the scene has no real effect on the plot.

An incredulous evaluation...missing the point entirely!