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Anastasia, a tale of mystery and intrigue
By FRANKLIN DAHTU KOLMA
The story of the Romanov family, the
last Czar to rule imperial Russia before the Revolution of October
1917, is long enduring and as intriguing and mysterious as it is
sad.
History tells us that on March 15, 1917 Nicholas II (Romanov)
abdicated his throne and he and his family were arrested and held.
Within months the Bolshevik Revolution began and the dictator
Lenin seized power.
On July 17, 1918 Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five
children were murdered at a place called Yekaterinburg.
Their grave site remained hidden until May 1979 when it was
located outside Yekaterinburg. In 1991 the Soviet Union which
started with Lenin seizing power dissolved.
In July of the same year the remains of Nicholas II and his family
were
exhumed and were
positively identified three years later.
The bodies of two children were not in the grave and no evidence
of them exists as far as official history goes.
Unofficially the rumor machine has spun tales about the existence
of the two children, particularly the beautiful little Anastasia
Nicholayevna, which have found captive audiences across the world.
The version recreated by the world's greatest story teller, Walt
Disney Studios, is stunning. Anastasia, the animated movie, is
breathtakingly beautiful.
Moving in places, hilarious in others and frightening in parts,
Anastasia is a remarkable and memorable story about the lasting
scars of wars and revolutions, about the drive to find one's own
identity, about hatred and drive for revenge so strong it reaches
back from the grave, and it is a love story.
I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the movie.
I have yet to tire of it.
The story begins in the lavish imperial palaces of the Romanovs,
of the fine clothes, the distinguished courts and the glittering
grand balls.
At one such ball the banished Rasputin attends uninvited and
places a curse upon the Czar and his family that before the next
year ends, he and his family would all die.
The revolution comes and the Czar is killed along with his family.
Anastasia is spirited away through a hidden doorway in the palace
walls by a kitchen boy but in the melee the two become separated
and she ends up in an orphanage.
In the madness of the revolution too, the evil Rasputin disappears
into a crack in the ice leaving behind the talisman which he had
obtained in his deal with the devil and which contains all his
powers.
Many years later the Dowager Empress (the mother of the Czar) who
escaped the revolution puts out a notice that she would pay 10
million rubles for whoever brought her grand daughter Anastasia to
her.
The kitchen boy, now an enterprising young man called Dimitri
surfaces in St Petersburg and holds auditions to select young
women who match Anastasia's description so that he can train them
in the ways of the imperial, convince the Dowager Empress and
claim the money.
In one of these he spots Anastasia because of her remarkable
likeness to a portrait of the imperial family.
Anastasia has suffered a memory lapse and has quite forgotten she
is royal.
The rest of the story is the remarkable journey to Paris and into
the forgotten past of Anastasia's locked and lost memories.
It is the story also of evil's reach from beyond the grave to
attempt to complete the Rasputin curse and bring an end to the
last of the Romanov line and of the romance between kitchen boy
and princess.
Right to the end, kitchen boy does not know that the princess is
the real thing until the final moment when she is asked how she
escaped from the palace.
She tells the Dowager Empress' secretary that a boy helped her
escape through a hole in the wall.
He had never told her that in his briefing and he knows she is the
real Anastasia. At that moment he realizes he has actually brought
in the real princess.
He knows that his love for her can never be fulfilled as he tells
his side kick, Vladimir: "Kitchen boys don't marry princesses."
The final show down between good and evil and of love's triumph is
something that must be seen to be enjoyed. I can't convey the
magic in words.
Produced by Don Bluth and Garry Goldman, Anastasia brings together
the voice talents of Meg Ryan as the adult Anastasia and Kirsten
Dunst and the girl Anastasia, John Cusack as Dimitri, Jim Cummings
as Rasputin and Angela Lansbury as the Dowager Empress. The
singing voice of Anastasia is performed by Liz Callaway.
The songs and the orchestra performed by Los Angeles and New York
AFM musicians are captivating.
The score by Jim Cummings as Rasputin from the grave "In the Dark
of the Night" is as outstanding as it is powerful and scary.
The theme song, "Once Upon a December", sung by the singing voice
of Anastasia, Liz Callaway is equally memorable.
The movie was released in 1997 but this, like Cinderella and Snow
White, is one tale that will delight audiences of all ages across
all ages.
Get your copy in DVD, CD and cassettes format from any record
stores near you.
If it is not already in your collection then you are missing a
"must" collector's item.
Enjoy a safe weekend.
*The writer is a grade 10 student at the
Salvation Army primary school.
 
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