Two mothers, one daughter, zero easy answers — Soviet guilt hits different.
Once, in search of an easy life, Katerina abandoned her daughter, giving her upbringing to an orphanage. Now, many years later, kind and conscientious, she returns to her native village and appears in the house where her daughter grew up ...
Acting
Sokolova's face does more than dialogue ever could.
Direction
Pchyolkin lets silence scream in cramped peasant rooms.
Cinematography
Mud, wood, wrinkled hands — poverty as aesthetic weapon.
Director
Leonid Pchyolkin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Khrushchev Thaw, this quietly subverts socialist realism by centering personal guilt over collective triumph.
Nina Urgant's performance as the stepmother was so affecting that audiences reportedly shouted at screens defending her honor.
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