A 57-minute Soviet romance that'll make you feel things you didn't sign up for.
For Vera — a student of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, first love instead of joy and happiness brings disappointment — and it was enough to have one first deception, and before a self-confident girl changes, becomes suspicious and closed. She no longer believes in anyone and runs away from people — having left the institute, Vera and her small daughter leave for a remote village where no one knows her. Soon she has a thin and responsive friend — a teacher at a neighboring school, Aleksei Nikolaevich...
Acting
Smoktunovskiy's gentle restraint against Marchenko's guarded fragility.
Cinematography
Leningrad's grey oppression vs. village light—literally shot differently.
Direction
Sokolov trusts silence more than any dialogue could deliver.
Director
Viktor Sokolov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Smoktunovskiy was already a stage star; this rare film role predates his iconic turn in 'Hamlet' by four years.
Made during Khrushchev's Thaw, when Soviet cinema briefly allowed complex female psychology over socialist-realist heroines.
SU
