The Chronicles of Melanie (2016)

The Chronicles of Melanie (2016) is a Latvian film in beautiful black-and-white from writer and director Viesturs Kairiss and it is actually based on the true story of a woman named Melanija Vanaga. She was a famous Latvian writer and journalist who was deported from the country to Siberia where she documented the rest of her life in a series of well-written diaries. Her life went through so many ups and downs as she spent sixteen years living as a criminal in Siberia, unwelcome in the country that she knew and loved for her entire life. She was in Siberia from 1941 to 1956 as she documents what she and other women went through to avoid starvation and disease while in exile in a small, freezing village away from her husband and eight-year-old son. She eventually returns to Soviet-ruled Latvia in 1957 where she winds up learning her husband died way back in 1942 in a camp. Her life was an incredible story and this movie, based on her writing, is also incredible. Erwin Leder stars as Jacob who shows up dead on a slab in a scene where he is also fully naked. We get to see his penis in this black-and-white scene that makes his body look like a work of art. Check out that soft sausage served up on a plate of black pubes in this scene that shows him before they cover him up and take the body away. No wonder Melanie chronicled this little scene - Erwin's penis looks great!