'The winner of the Silver Bear at Berlin, 20 years after it was banned by the Kremlin, this allegory on the birth of the Soviet state is also one of the few films of the Communist era to deal with anti-Semitism and revolutionary womanhood. Consciously evoking the visual style of the great silent montagists, the story of Red Army commissar Nonna Mordyukova's stay with an impoverished Jewish family during the last days of her pregnancy overflows with a tolerance and humanity utterly at odds with the Civil War raging outside. Director Alexander Askoldov's courageous stance meant he never worked again' - Radio Times