artificial respiration.
- His heart...
- l loosen his clothes.
While you're thinking about
what to do, he dies.
You didn't even check
whether his heart was beating.
l do heart massage.
Too late...
Well...
That's the situation.
You still have
a lot of learning to do.
lf you've studied with the Mate,
it should be him who examines you.
l might not ask for the same things.
Well, let's say...
Come to see me
in the Control Room,
we'll speak there.
You come to see me
during the training exercise.
- May l go?
- Yes.
What a pity,
no time to finish!
Enjoy your meal!
Enjoy, enjoy...
- Any onions?
- No.
After the meal, those who are free
go to peel potatoes.
l'll check the potatoes.
Don't forget to salt them.
Only Keks salts them.
Last time l did it,
he asked me
if l was trying to kill him.
l put too much salt.
Have you got a light?
l hate tests.
- How many have you passed?
- One.
l'm just going to do
the book.
Lazar, don't use the mop.
You'll have to wash it.
l'll hold it over the side.
lf you do, the bosun
will throw it at your head.
You're going to break
something again.
What the hell
are you unscrewing it for?
There's some lubricant inside.
He wasn't there. Well he was,
but he was having his meal.
He told me to come back later.
The lighter, oh,
it's gone right down inside.
- Who's got any matches?
- Dima has.
There must be 3 cans.
Only 2, and not for long.
You'll have to get some.
The village is nearby.
They've no more oil.
They've given it all away.
Powerful lighter.
Not mine?
Gloves or no gloves,
l don't care.
Where are your slippers?
Give me a cigarette.
The old story.
Go on, take one.
Only the CD-5 buys ''Belomor'',
but the whole crew smokes them.
- He's over there.
- There?
What's up now?
Not studying any more?
The electricians are keen.
So keen the capstan's been
changed three times now.
You should put the deck
in order.
He still has to wash the mops.
He hung them over the side.
- Prokofiev!
- Present.
Come here!
Thinking over the day,
the Commander
still couldn't make out
why this feeling of anxiety
would not leave him,
and why on this particular day
he expected something awful
to happen on board.
Everything was just as usual,
and probably would be,
for the rest of his life,
as he wrote in his diary.
The Commander had a hobby
that nobody knew about.
He trained his memory.
He made himself memorise
word for word
a story by Chekhov,
which he had recently read.
He tried to concentrate,
but everything on the bridge
distracted him.
At last he remembered.
''The soldiers stand on deck
and look silently,
upwards,
then downwards.
Above there is the deep sky,
radiant stars,
peace and silence.
Nobody knows why
the high waves are roaring.
Each wave, as you watch it,
tries to rise higher,
pushing down the one before.
But a third wave
overrides them all,
just the same,
just as fierce and ugly.
The sea has neither sense,
nor compassion.
lf the ship were smaller,
and not made of thick iron,
the waves would break it
without qualm,
and swallow all the people,
whether saints or sinners.
The ship too has an expression
of mindless cruelty.
The monster with its great snout
forces its way onwards,
cutting through millions of waves.
lt doesn't fear darkness
or wind,
empty space or solitude.
lf the ocean had people
of its own,
this monster would
crush them too,
whether saints
or sinners.
''Where are we now?''
asks the soldier.
''l don't know.
lt seems we're on the ocean,
you cannot see the land'',
answers the other.
Both soldiers look
at the white foam,
They remain silent and think.
The first
breaks the silence.
''There's nothing to be afraid of'',
he says.
''Yet l'm terrified,
as if we were sitting
in a dark forest.''
Serguei BAKAl
The Commander
Camera
Alexei Fiodorov
Editor
Leda Semionova
Sound
Serguei Moshkov
Alexander Sokurov
CONFESSlON
from the diary
of a ship Commander
End of