A Soviet teacher walks into vocational school chaos. Optimism meets industrial decay.
Young Nina was hired as a teacher at a vocational school. She is full of optimism. Trying to get in touch with her charges, looking into books on psychology and taking timid steps towards rapprochement, she tries to understand their problems and feel the very “material” that she will only have to come to terms with...
Acting
Tarkhova's fragile optimism against impossible odds.
Production
Authentic vocational school dreariness, no romanticism.
Director
Vladimir Openyshev
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the USSR's final collapse, it captures a society literally falling apart while pretending to function. The vocational school becomes a metaphor for the entire Soviet project.
Director Openyshev never made another feature; this disappeared into obscurity until recent archivist rediscovery. Tarkhova's performance remains her only significant screen credit.
SU
